Hanging Out with the Hawks Pt I (of III): Red Tails

Dec17

DSC09555
(You really need to click to enlarge these photos to see these beauties close up!) I’ve been busy the last few days taking pics of hawks.

DSC09557
I got to be up close and personal with Harris and Red Tail Hawks, hold, fly them, and photograph them.

DSC09503
In other words, I was in heaven!

DSC09505
Check out the pics of the red tail. Beautiful isn’t he! Next post I’ll introduce you to the Harris Hawks and show you them flying and hunting in tandem. Amazing!
DSC09485
I took these pics at West Coast Falconery which is run by Kirk Selinger a licensed falconer and his apprentice Denise Disharoon. Kirk is a former National Geographic videographer, who now spends his time raising hawks, owls and vultures. He lives in a place just about as remote as The Holler, and we drove down a rutted dirt road to spend some time with him and his gorgeous birds. More pics of the red tail!
DSC09493
This is a seven month old melanistic Red Tailed Hawk. It’s feathers are darker than normal due to excess melanin production.
DSC09559
Here he is having a shower which he loves!
DSC09509
To see Kirk’s operation click on: http://westcoast-falconry.com/falconry-education/west-coast-falconry-san-diego/
The Holler hawks have been very active and flying very close to me lately, so I’ll try to post some shots of them as well. Cheers to you from Hawk Heaven!

149 thoughts on “Hanging Out with the Hawks Pt I (of III): Red Tails”

  7. It looks so powerful, like the mythical bird Garuda!
    (It somehow reminds me of our national emblem which happens to be Garuda)
    😀

    Like

    Reply

  16. We have red-tails around our mountain year-round. We mostly see them gliding between the trees. A few years back a smaller hawk began roosting in woods around the bend. They have had several broods since. I mostly see them soaring a good distance up, so I have not gotten a positive identification, but I guess they are sharp-shinned by their color and wing spread.
    Oscar

    Like

    Reply

    • They should return to the nest each year as they are monogamous. When they get accoustomed to you watching them a lot (like me) they will fly close to you to check you out……if you have the time. I know the farm keeps you very busy. They are a joy to have around and I love to watch the mating flights, nesting and chick rearing. Cheers to you Oscar~

      Like

      Reply

  19. Pingback: Death as a New Beginning: The Art of Possibility | The Beauty Along the Road

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.