Nice photos. Out here west of Tucson, I’m seeing quite a few Gambel’s quail with their young, plenty of mourning doves and ravens, and a few red-tailed hawks when I’m walking in the mornings. And the damned Gila woodpeckers, who drum on our metal chimney cap and drink all the sugar water out of the hummingbird feeders.
Love hawks, all of them. Red Tails are great! I took this picture of one standing on the road as I came around the corner. I parked and walked over to it, getting close enough to it to get this!
It did not like that I was there, but I have observed that hawks will not leave food to attack you. They are going to stay with the meal, or carry it off if they can.
Like this BIG red tail that carried this rabbit off right outside my trailer at work. I saw something big flash by my window, and immediately ran out to see. This is what I recorded:
That was the biggest Red Tail I have ever seen, and I was impressed as it flew off, with the way it casually reached down with its other talon and secured the payload. Damn. That thing was almost the size of an Eagle!
“the damned Gila woodpeckers”
We get Northern Flicker woodpeckers in the spring that drum on our chimney caps. Unfortunately, it’s only a few feet down the chimney to our master bedroom on the second floor. There’s nothing like waking up to that serenade at 5 am!