Red Tailed Hawk

One of things about a wildlife habitat in the backyard is that you get both sides of the food chain. While I have lots of deer, wild turkey, opossum, raccoons, squirrels, chipmunks and a wide variety of birds I also get the occasional predator. In this case it was an immature red tailed hawk that came and sat on the deck railing for a while waiting for an unwary chipmunk, dove or something else tasty. He/she sat and posed for a long time all the while keeping a close eye on the ground under the bird feeders. The hummers and chickadees pretty much ignored it but there was not much else venturing out. Even though they are a regular visitor I get just as excited each time they appear and always try and get a few pictures. It was late in the day and between cloudbursts but I managed to catch a few poses.

You can click on the pictures if you want to see them full screen.

For any of you that are interested these were taken with a Nikon D80 using the 55-200 VR Zoom.