Just Cuz

No time to write, no ID to offer. I just like the way the picture looks. Hope all is well with everyone... 

Through a Window Dirty

This red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) spends a lot of time hunting in our yard. We see it quite regularly, perched on a limb over the garden or sitting in the heartnut tree scanning the side yard. Normally it behaves in a very proper hawk-like manner, but the other day it suffered a momentary identity crisis.
It flew to the ground and did an excellent impression of a robin. It would hop about, head cocked to the side, apparently watching and listening to something on the ground. Then, instead of pecking as a robin would, it would grab at the ground with its talon and come up with a hunk of grass.

We never could see what it was after. Red-shoulders eat a variety of critters including snakes and rodents, but we never saw it actually eat anything while it was doing its robin-thing. Who knows, maybe it was just having fun perplexing the humans who were peering at it through the dirty window :)