I was driving north out of the Sawtooth Mountains in Southern Idaho. Once down from the mountains, I found myself passing agricultural fields, and Swainson's hawks were all over the
place--on fields, telephone poles, and hay bails. I didn't notice these two until I drove right past them. I jumped on the brakes and parked like a birder, hoping I would get a shot of them. Miraculously, they stayed on the hay bail long enough for me to park and run back to them. They let me photograph them for about a minute before flying out over the field.

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The Rough-legged Hawk is one of our Winter visitors in the northern states and raptors that are a part of winter birding in Michigan. These hawks can be found in open fields or open areas next to forests. They breed on the northern edge of North America and can be found in a good deal of the Lower 48 during winter. I spotted this bird on my way to a waste treatment plant where I hoped to find a flock of Ross's Geese. The time was about 8 AM, and the sun was rising and the temperature was cold. The bird was perched far enough from the road that it didn't flush when I parked.

I later found 17 Ross's Geese, but they were too far from the shore to provide a usable photo.

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I was working from home when I glanced at the the feed station in my front yard and saw this diminutive hawk perched above one of the feeders. This bird comes around from time to time, but I have never managed to get anything other than bad proof pics. I grabbed my camera, ran to the kitchen, opened the window oh so carefully that I wouldn't spook the bird. Mercifully, the hawk stayed put and posed nicely. Winter birding in the front yard at its best!

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Someone at the National Butterfly Center in Mission, TX, told me about a Gray Hawk nest. One morning, I thought I would walk by the nest and look up to see if the birds would be in view. They weren't, so I looked to my right and noticed one of the juveniles perched in the morning sun. It then flew to a different perch and sat next to its sibling.

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The CBH is a tropical hawk that lives in Mexico and Central America. As few as 250 pairs nest in the US. This bird, likely the female, nests with her mate at the very bottom of Big Bend NP only hundreds of yards from the Rio Grande.

I took this image during sunrise, hence the gentle light that is beginning to cover her feathers after she flew from the nest to preen after the male returned to relieve her. The Female CBH typically is the partner that spends most of the time incubating eggs or tending to the young while the male hunts for food like frogs, fish, or lizards.

This image looks as though I am close to the bird. I'm not; in fact, I am back far enough that I didn't need to angle my lens too sharply to produce a reasonably straight shot.

A lifer.

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