Flying High - Red Tailed Hawk?

I took the day off from work and went back to Sky Meadows State Park in Northern Virginia (see Feb 17th blip) to get more shots of red headed woodpeckers.

When I got to the park, it was strangely quiet even though the park is known for it's huge population of woodpeckers. I could hear several woodpeckers deeper in the woods. So, I braved it and hiked through the woods about a mile or so up and down the hilly terrain. Other than some nut hatches, carolina chickadees, and a couple of other birds, I saw two red headed woodpeckers way up in a tree.

I hiked back and just as I came out of the woods, I saw this Hawk circling around about a 1/4 mile away. What was odd was that it almost like he knew I wanted a photo. He flew quickly toward me, slowed down right over top of me, made a u-turn, flew over my head again and went back to his original starting position.

Needless to say, I was so excited that I actually got this close to a hawk and that the pictures came out too! It appears to be a Red Tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) - I'm waiting for our resident blip expert Debbi to confirm... : )

Happy, Happy Friday!

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