A Red Shouldered Hawk.

Since you seen nothing for mergansers for a few days, I thought I break up the monotony with some images of the red shouldered hawk. This fellow was perched in a tree just next to the road. I only had to lean out the window.

He looked at me and was totally unconcerned. Clearly, a bearded old man with a camera is nothing new for this guy.

It is rare that I get an opportunity to photograph a bird of prey from this close and actually have something in the background that is not a much brighter sky. It is alway hard to get a good look at a bird with he is strongly backlit. Having one close and in front of a tree is pretty much an ideal combination.

He's a handsome and stately bird. Some might even say he's lordly. But I won't. (In our house we save that descriptor for the Australian Bustard with his large body, haughtily raised head, and defiance of comfort living in the Australian outback. Besides, that is how he was described in the bird book we were using then.)