Juvie Red Tailed Hawk

Edit: My birding pals think this is a young red tailed hawk. Works for me. I first said sharp shinned hawk.

I think. I will not swear to this in a court of law. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

A lovely Sunday today and we went to Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge and it was a great trip. I would be pleased as punch if you would see the rest of the photos that I have on my Flickr album. The white egret didn't quite come out as well as I'd hoped. Eagle-eye Bill spotted the Sandhill Cranes, and I'm happy I can even tell what the birds are in my photos, because they were pretty far away. An immature eagle was checking out the Coot buffet on the pond from his/her perch in the tree. I got a shot of it when it flew away....not a good image, but the wings look kind of cool. The swans were lounging in several different spots in the refuge. And this hawk! Wow. This bird stayed put on the sign as we slowly drove closer and closer and eventually passed it as it just looked at the cars with curiosity. There are other shots of this beauty in the album. Bill picked this one out, so I just went with it. We saw the Mama and Papa eagle in their usual area, close to where they nest. I just don't have a big enough lens to do them justice. The last photo is of Mt. St. Helens. I should have asked Bill to let me take a photo of the mountain first, before we turned off to the refuge, as it looked quite stunning with a lovely lenticular cloud above the peak. On our return to the freeway and to the place where I took this photo, I saw that it wasn't as lovely of an image, but I took it anyway. After several trips to the refuge that hasn't been all the exciting, it was great to finally get a few good photos of something. Thank you, hawk!!

Thank you for visiting.