The Red Tail Show

   What a beautiful day! I actually had to wear a light jacket for a bit while I was out photographing. I decided to head down to my favorite spot. It's been fun to go there on a regular basis as it allows me to see how things change throughout the year.

 I had barely gotten out of the car when I heard some type of hawk calling. 
 Ha! There he was! In a tree right next to the parking lot.

    I got off a few shots before he flew off. Damn! But as I was grabbing my daypack I could him calling. I walked around the office building and found him sitting in a pine tree.

He kept calling and calling. I soon realized he was a young red tail and asking for breakfast from mom. It reminded me of how my owl friends would call for dinner from mom.
I hung around for a bit hoping to see mom bring some food but it never happened. So I headed off to see what else was going on.

 I saw one of the night herons over on the small island. He took off flying in the opposite direction...bummer! I would like to get a really good flight shot of him. From behind, he looks quite a bit like a great blue heron,huh?

    I went to see if the wood duck youngins were around and they were. I didn't see 
    mom but I'm sure she was around.

  And even though I have 5 million pics of egrets, I had to take a few more pics....

   As I was photographing the egret, I saw a lump in the water nearby. Ha! It was one of the muskrats. I see them all the time but usually they are swimming away. So this was quite a treat!

      As I walked along, I could feel that autumn is in the air. It was also noticeable by 
   the lack of wildlife. The avocets had left a few weeks ago and now there were no sand 
   pipers or killdeer. There were almost no song birds...just sparrows and the swallows.
   Here was a cute sparrow.....

 The great blue herons were around. Got this interesting, kind of artsy photo :)

  I decided to go see if the young redtail was still in his spot and he was! So I 
  grabbed a few more pics! He had moved to a better spot and the light was much better. I was very happy with these pics!
 What a great day!