Chasing the Red-shouldered Hawk

I sat in the car eating my lunch and reading the paper. The alarm went off telling me I had seven minutes to return to work. I locked the car a wandered over to the water to see if any thing was around. Nothing in the water.

I flushed out an Ibis.

A squirrel with twig crossed my path. I usually don’t take pictures of the bushy tail rats (I've probably upset some of my co-workers. They don't see them as members of the rodent family.), but today I snapped a picture of him.

A black dragon fly came into view as I ca closer. (I haven’t had time to identify him. I’’ll come back and give him a name.)

Time to get back to work. I walked over to the picnic bench to put my camera away, and that’s when I heard the sound. The screech of the Red-shouldered Hawk. A woman walking in the parking lot just west of me, seemed to be causing the bird distress. I knew I was going to be late getting back from lunch, but I had to get a shot of this bird.

From my view she looked like she was standing in a nest. I would see later this afternoon that it wasn’t her nest if it was a nest.

She had enough of me photographing her. She jumped down to the next branch, and as you can see she gave me a fright. I couldn’t hold the camera still. (As you can see from looking at picture on the left. She's a blur.)

I decided to hold my ground, with this "shy" bird. (Yep, the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds describes the Red-shouldered hawk as being shy.) The picture reveals an fearless, unhappy camper. So much for being a wall flower.

I think the team, I’m a member of at work, thinks I’m crazy. I’ve been late coming back from lunch to photograph vultures eating a possum (the pictures were taken before I started the blog. I don't know why I haven't gone back to somethings. It just doesn't seem right), having to change my pants because Charlie urinated on them, and now to take pictures of a hawk.

As I was leaving the phone rang about the time I seen the hawk flying out of the oak tree. She had something in her talons. I ignored Tigger telling me that someone wants to talk to me, and grabbed the camera. I still can’t figure out what she was eating. I stood there and took pictures as other drove out of the parking lot. By the time I thought of using the movie mode on the camera, she stopped talking to me. I guess she figured I wasn’t going to harm her.