Raptors and smaller creatures

[ritaxis]

I put up a gallery of a small fraction of my latest "fecund seasons" pictures. If you know raptors, could you take a look? I can't identify the one bird -- the pictures are not great, alas. I wish I could peg the focus on the digital camera. It wobbles out of focus, lags, otherwise annoys me.

Comments

Re: Raptors and smaller creatures

[pir_anha]

oh, the gopher picture in particular is delightful. as is its title, albeit in a very different way, *snicker*.

sorry, not much help on the raptor. could be an immature, too, right? it doesn't look like a fully grown golden eagle; it's not dark enough, and it doesn't have the right leg feathers, and it just overall doesn't say "eagle" to me. its head is too dark to be an adult red tailed hawk; they have a white throat, a mottled chest, and a white belly. merlins have a more mottled belly. i think your guess of red shouldered hawk comes closest to my internal image of what they look like -- but i am by far no raptor expert; just a casual watcher of them.

Re: Raptors and smaller creatures

[ritaxis]

I'm thinking now in terms of an idiosyncratic juvenile red tail, since I know that red tails are more variable than most hawks and I have seen unambiguous red tails there before.

Yes, well, the gopher -- there are a lot of gopher stories in the Field, and most of them end up with dinner.