Saturday, December 04, 2010

red-tailed hawk guarding my plot

redtail on branch
There's a big hawk sitting in the ash tree right next to my community garden plot the past few days. A female Red-tailed hawk. Probably the same one I've seen in this area for years. I'm glad to see her watching over the plots. I know there are very many rodents (and rabbits) in there.

redtail on branch 1 redtail in flight 3

I recently saw this Red-tail photo in the Boston Globe. The hawk caught and ate a pigeon amidst the holiday shoppers downtown. They are everywhere in the winters here.

13 comments:

Topfgartenwelt said...

Nice pictures!

Mr. J said...

Hawks are such amazing creatures. They have such grace and patience. You photos are gorgeous. Excellent job capturing the majesty of this bird

Katrina said...

Red-tailed hawks are incredible animals. Did you get to see the nesting ones over by the Whole Foods in Fresh Pond this spring? My students and I have set up a bird-watching heaven just outside our classroom and we've had these hawks come through the "bird-feed" on the birds. We even got a falcon last week!

Gorgeous pictures you have! I love the first one...you can really see the glints of red in it.

GBMF-Matt said...

Good to know she's watching over your plot so you don't have to.

meemsnyc said...

What a gorgeous hawk! Just beautiful.

Stone Art's Blog said...

amazing

ValHalla said...

I was just hawk watching in my own garden yesterday. I started to feel silly starting and photographing it after a while. Funny how amazing it can be to see a bird of prey!

John Craine said...

Not a welcome sight to those of us that raise chickens...

Sarah Thompson said...

Hi Kathy,

I am the Environmental Committee chair at the National Marine Fisheries Service office in Gloucester, MA. Our office has around 200 Federal employees. We are hosting a Gardening/Sustainable Food Fair and are hoping that you may want to be a part of it. We are not looking for anything fancy, simply people to educate our staff regarding Community-Supported Agriculture, gardening, composting, fish cooperative, Farmers' Market, etc. This would be a place for you to discuss your expertise and pass along information/flyers. Do you have any interest? This would not be a formal presentation, rather we would have tables set up and people could come by and speak with you if interested.

If interested, would you be free to come for a couple of hours (11:30 AM to 1:30 PM) to represent organic farming? The tentative date is March 9, 2011, Wednesday. We hope that this is early enough in the year to beat the Summer rush.

Thank you,
Sarah (sarahm_thom@yahoo.com)

Marian(LondonUK) said...

Hi,great photographs. We have a large community of hedge sparrows in the hedge near our workshop. A few weeks ago we had continual visits from a Sparrow Hawk diving to try and catch one of our little buddies. They do appear from time to time but this was a few times a day over several days. They must have been hungry I guess to venture into a suburban garden.

Nice invitation from the Marine people!

Marian (London UK)

elpi said...

wow!! great shot. .

Matron said...

How wonderful! and such beautiful photos. We had a fright this week when we spotted a red-tailed kite over the dog rescue centre where I volunteer. Trouble was, my friend's miniature chihuaua was taking a run in the paddock at the time! We had to run out to save it.. or it might have been a tasty snack!

Maria said...

Thank you for the lovely picture of the red tailed hawk watching your garden! I was searching for a good picture to add to my blog and am glad to have found your website as I love gardening as well. I live in New York and would like to grow all of our own vegetables, so look forward to learning from you. We have a garden at home, unheated greenhouse and rented a small community plot last summer. With some planning and learning from you, I imagine we can supply our family with a lot more food in the near future. Thank you! My blog is: http://www.createyourwellness.net/blog.html

Take care!
Maria