Red-tailed Hawk, and a poem :)

Red-tailed Hawk, National Estuarine Research Reserve at Laudholm Farm, Wells Maine

There is a poem:

When I first pulled into the parking lot
at Laudholm Farms, I glanced out the
driver’s side window to see a hawk
sitting on the Bluebird House 40 yards
away. I grabbed for the camera, but 
by the time I got it out and on, and 
reached for the handle to roll down
the window, the Hawk was gone.

Surely too big for a Cooper’s Hawk?

Still I got out and wandered over 
toward the corner of the woodlot
beyond the bird house, in case it had 
not gone far…and, surprise, there it
was on the ground 4 feet behind the
rough hedge along the fence between
the parking lot and field. It was away
again before I could get on it, but it
landed in the low branch of a big oak
at the edge. I got a few shots, mostly
obscured by branches and a few dried
leaves still clinging on…but then it
swooped and landed again on the 
ground behind the hedge. Now there
was a big enough gap just there so I
could focus through the winter twigs,
and I took its portrait as it danced and
pounced on something small in the 
frozen grasses at its feet. Up again
to perch in an old maple by the road.

This time I caught the unmistakable 
flash of rust red on the tail. Ah!

The Red-tailed Hawk perched with its back 
to me, and let me get a lot closer than I 
expected, looking over its shoulder every 
once in a while to see what I was doing.

Magnificent! The beak and eye…the
intricate cryptology of feather detail
of one of nature’s ultimate birds of prey.

In the end it had enough of my looking at it, 
and flew off down the treeline another 40 
yards. I let it go. Thrilled to my bones,
entirely blessed, to have been part of its day.

This is, clearly, one of the portraits behind the hedge. Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. Program Mode. 1/800th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Cropped for scale and composition and processed in Snapseed on my Android tablet. Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve at Laudholm Farm in Wells Maine. 

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