It's dark for 3:30 PM, and a cold sporadic rain has been falling for over 24 hours. I'm still attempting to come up with techniques to keep the Red-tails from taking a powder when I pull over. This hawk is far further away than she appears as this is the full extent of my zoom lens. So far so good. She's not paying much attention to me yet.
This is cropped and lightened. Note she's still got her eye out for possible prey.
I drive closer.
Now she defecates and is paying me more attention and could take off in any second. I've been putting on the windshield wipers to get the rain off the windshield, stopping them and then taking pictures.
As I learned with the M hawks keeping the radio going is a help. Hmm, I consider if I'd be able to keep the windshield wipers going too and take a photo in between swipes.
It works! With the wipers going at a steady rhythm she goes back to focusing on possible prey. Another technique for future reference! It is a lousy day and I do want her to be successful so I leave to give her the best shot at catching dinner before full dark.
The young Cooper's Hawk is waiting....
...for the sparrows to come out of their stick pile like above. So far they've completely refused to cooperate.
Donegal Browne
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