Sky Watch Friday

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This week again I am departing from the usual post that I do...we have been having absolutely clear skies with no clouds.

As I was looking at the sky to find something to shoot...I notice my friend the Red Tail Hawk sitting in the Walnut Tree just about a Quarter of a mile from the cabin here.

I ran in and grabbed the camera with the 70-300 lens on and began to photograph him...I was able to get just a bit closer each shot till I was about 2,000 yards away..then he decided to fly elsewhere..to the South ...he had been sitting in the North West. I did manage to get a few shots of him flying by..therefore I also got some sky in the shots.

Click on any photograph for a larger and more personal view.

Shot from the porch here at the cabin.

Just a bit farther down towards the tree

Still closer..a better shot

Flying by from NW towards the South

I did promise some sky..here it is
(Still flying towards the South)

More great Blue sky..and my friend reaching the South Sky.

Hawk and Kestrel Day

Today's post is of my adventures yesterday trying to capture on my camera of the Hawk and an American Kestrel that visited the Walnut Tree that stands at the edge of the apple orchard at quite a distance from our cabin here.

This tree is the usual resting place of my friend the Red Tail Hawk that I keep trying to get closer to to get better photographs of.

I spotted a Hawk in the tree, so I got in my truck and drove towards the tree in an attempt to get closer, I drove up to within 55 yards of the tree and stopped and started taking pictures with my Nikon with the 70-300VR lens on and realized that I had gotten quite closer than usual to the Hawk and didn't know till I downloaded the photographs to my computer that I had been taking pictures of NOT the Red Tail Hawk, but a Red Shoulder Hawk, seems we do tend to get excited at getting good pictures instead of who we are shooting..lol.

Click on the photographs to get up close and personal views.

The Walnut Tree

Red Shoulder Hawk (Juvenile Lineatus)

Isn't he just handsome

Leaving the Tree

The next series of photographs is of an American Kestrel that also decided to land in the tree later in the day when I drove back to the tree and stopped about 30 yards from the tree in hopes of a Hawk stopping by again while I sat in my truck waiting.

I sat in the truck for about a half hour at around 3 in the evening and a Kestrel landed in the tree, and this time I had on my 2X converter on my 70-300VR lens in hopes of getting better photos of a Hawk, I was so glad I had it on because a Kestrel is only about 10 1/2 inches tall, so I was able to get fairly detailed photos of him.

Kestrel landing in the tree

Looking down

Beautiful isn't he

Hawk Friend

My Red Tail Hawk Friend

Here is my latest endeavor at capturing my Friend the Red Tail Hawk, he is so elusive and hard to capture, as he stays at quite a distance anymore because someone or something has frightened him within the past few years and I am unable to get much closer than a thousand yards so I have to rely on my "Long Lens" (70-300MM) to get any decent photograph of him.

Here he is in all his new Spring atire, new chest feathers and all. Isn't he just Handsome!!!.