Red-tailed Hawk

Birds of Prey – Backyard Drama 4/4

You don’t always have to travel far to get the best shot. Here, a red tailed hawk discovered the grackle colony in our neighbor’s white pine, and decided to help himself to a baby grackle. This unsurprisingly caused an immediate stir in the grackle colony. The hawk moved over to a nearby utility pole and was mobbed by 10-15 grackles unhappy with the turn of events. Unperturbed, the red-tail casually ate his meal from the pole over the next 15 minutes while being constantly dive-bombed by the grackles. The image captures the split second right before impact, when the hawk finally looks up with an annoyed look. Over the next 6-8 weeks, anytime the hawk would fly anywhere within a quarter mile, a group of grackles would immediately attack it to try and prevent this from recurring.
I am unusually not a huge fan of having human infrastructure (utility pole and transformer) in my shot, but in this case, I think it helps tell the story of how dramatic wildlife moments can happen even in human environments.

While they can’t be uploaded here, if you want to see a video of this encounter, check out the following links (second link is slow motion):
https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/657581187
https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/657581180