To say this hawk is unusual is an understatement. Usually red-tailed hawks do not want to be around people. This one seems to crave attention. She can hunt anywhere on this big expanse of land. Instead she chooses to stick near the parking lot where people are.
She gives people plenty of chances to see her landing on posts, landing on trees, landing on the ground near them, and flying very close to where people are standing.
In the above photo she landed on the section of trail that was closed right next to the barriers and sign. She was stomping the ground hunting for a vole.
In the above photo she is hunting from the outhouse ventilation.
When the short-eared owls arrived from the arctic to winter, they would try to knock her off posts. Now she is spending more time hanging out on this tree. This attracts the owls to the tree, but they seem unable to fly close enough to knock her off. On Christmas she kept eating a vole while ignoring the close fly bys. Below is one of the approaching short eared owls. They seem to take turns going after her.
It is always a show when this particular red tailed hawk is nearby. She either gives us one or we get a double feature that includes the owls. I hope everyone had a Happy Holiday. Have a great weekend!
Sharon's Iconic Travel Photography Blog 
Oh my! These pictures are extraordinary!
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The bird makes it so. The right light, the right settings, and flying close gives you good results.
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Flying close?!
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Yes, it is flying close. The photo was taken with a zoom lens that goes up to 600 mm, but the photo is barely cropped.
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Amazing!
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What a treat!
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Yes! We love it when she’s around.
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Gorgeous! I just love the hawks, and birds of prey in general. 🙂
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We are so lucky to see a hawk this close.
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Yes you were. There was one flying above me yesterday, at a pretty close range, but he flew away so fast, I wasn’t able to get any shots of him.
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This one is known for flying close to people so we have a chance as she moves from tree to post etc. to get some shots off.
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You got some GREAT shots too! 🙂
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Yes, you were. 🙂
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Wow! Thank you for these amazing photographs. The owls never give up and the hawk is like…whatever.
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Exactly! I saw this owl munching on a vole in that tree and it paid no attention whatsoever to the owls flying up to the tree. It did not even look up from eating the vole. There is a harrier hawk that is an instigator. It hangs out near the red tailed on a post. If the owls are not coming up to the red tailed the harrier will go fly down to them chase them around and after the harrier come back tan owl will fly back and go after the red tailed. It does not go after the harrier. Its good for the photographers when the harrier does that.
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So interesting. Thank you. They are all so beautiful.
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