Red-Tailed Hawk - Appleton Photographers - Bird Photography - M.C. Kinney Photography

Yesterday was a cold, windy day with a beautiful blue sky. I headed out to Freedom to look for some Snowy Owls but not a sighting to be had. On my way to the studio, I swung over to 1000 Islands Environmental Center, but other than one lone Common Goldeneye playing in the river and an Eagle way off in the distance, nothing. So off to work I went. But as I crossed the College Avenue bridge I thought I'd take a swing down along the river and found this rather large hawk.

I thought is was a Coopers Hawk or a Sharp-shinned but on closer review and some help from the facebook group Wisconsin Birding I'm pretty sure it's a Red-Tailed Hawk. This big guy stayed on this limb for over an hour (I left while it was still sitting there) although it did preen itself, fan out one of it's wings to it's full length, and turn around on the limb after I was there about a half an hour. Several people walked under it and at least 8 cars went under it. It just wasn't ready to fly away!

I did get this very interested look when I turned off my vehicle though.

And this look when I was walking back to my car! A lot of personality with this one. And unlike so many other hawks, it had no problem hanging around long enough for me to take some images!