This is a juvenile Red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis.

Today, a Saturday, I had to work. I was a bit disappointed as I’ve been there a lot these past few weeks and while the place does give me plenty of photo-ops, I really wanted to do more “nature photos.” When lunch time came I stepped outside to check the weather, it was very cold and very gray. As I stood there thinking where in the building I would go I suddenly noticed this hawk sitting in a tree not 20 feet (6 meters) from me!! Thinking, “Oh damn, the one day I didn’t have my camera actually in hand…,” I quickly went back in and grabbed it. I was lucky in that this bird was really hungry and waited in the tree for me. It had found a good place to sit and watch for the little creatures that populate the slopes that lead down to the garage. Of course, in my haste I forgot my coat and gloves so for the next 20 minutes I stood there pointing my camera at it, freezing to death. I shot about 130 shots, many of them boring, of it just sitting there in the tree. It was so tame I was even able to climb up on the wall overlooking the slopes to get some other angles, an action that got me yelled at by security…LOL Eventually it went after some birds but missed then returned to its roost. Another 20 minutes went by when it suddenly dove down slope and nailed a big juicy rat. I got shots of that but they were not as good as this one. Eventually, I’ll add those to my Carnegie gallery…I’m so glad I had to go to work today….