{"id":9683,"date":"2016-12-29T06:01:16","date_gmt":"2016-12-29T11:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/p4td.lightshedder.com\/?p=9683"},"modified":"2016-12-29T06:01:16","modified_gmt":"2016-12-29T11:01:16","slug":"red-tailed-hawk-and-a-poem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psnp.info\/p4td_\/?p=9683","title":{"rendered":"Red-tailed Hawk, and a poem :)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Red-tailed Hawk, National Estuarine Research Reserve at Laudholm Farm, Wells Maine<\/p><\/div>\n

There is a poem:<\/p>\n

\n

When I first pulled into the parking lot
\nat Laudholm Farms, I glanced out the
\ndriver’s side window to see a hawk
\nsitting on the Bluebird House 40 yards
\naway. I grabbed for the camera, but 
\nby the time I got it out and on, and 
\nreached for the handle to roll down
\nthe window, the Hawk was gone.<\/p>\n

Surely too big for a Cooper’s Hawk?<\/p>\n

Still I got out and wandered over 
\ntoward the corner of the woodlot
\nbeyond the bird house, in case it had 
\nnot gone far…and, surprise, there it
\nwas on the ground 4 feet behind the
\nrough hedge along the fence between
\nthe parking lot and field. It was away
\nagain before I could get on it, but it
\nlanded in the low branch of a big oak
\nat the edge. I got a few shots, mostly
\nobscured by branches and a few dried
\nleaves still clinging on…but then it
\nswooped and landed again on the 
\nground behind the hedge. Now there
\nwas a big enough gap just there so I
\ncould focus through the winter twigs,
\nand I took its portrait as it danced and
\npounced on something small in the 
\nfrozen grasses at its feet. Up again
\nto perch in an old maple by the road.<\/p>\n

This time I caught the unmistakable 
\nflash of rust red on the tail. Ah!<\/p>\n

The Red-tailed Hawk perched with its back 
\nto me, and let me get a lot closer than I 
\nexpected, looking over its shoulder every 
\nonce in a while to see what I was doing.<\/p>\n

Magnificent! The beak and eye…the
\nintricate cryptology of feather detail
\nof one of nature’s ultimate birds of prey.<\/p>\n

In the end it had enough of my looking at it, 
\nand flew off down the treeline another 40 
\nyards. I let it go. Thrilled to my bones,
\nentirely blessed, to have been part of its day.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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