Ed Cordes
02-15-2009, 09:59 AM
We live in Upstate NY just North of the PA border in Corning. There are a lot of Red Tail Hawks here. They love to sit in trees hunting. Often they are within easy lens range of very busy roads with hundreds of cars and very loud semi-trucks going by. They never seem to mind the volume of traffic or the noise. HOWEVER, just try to stop, or even slow down and they are flying off in a heart beat!
Sometimes they play with you. They watch you out of the corner of their eyes as you slow down. They tease you as you watch them for a minute or so to ensure your car/blind is OK with them only to fly away as soon as you roll the window down and aim your lens. It's almost like they can see into your car and watch you lift your camera. Then they fly away just out of range of your 500 mm 2X TC combo and laugh at you!! Yup, sometimes I can actually hear them laugh - or at least I think I can!
Red Tail Hawks can be evil creatures who torment the local nature photographers. It is apparently their job to find the best light with the best perches and sit there looking majestic until a photographer comes by. Then they snicker and fly off, only to repeat the behavior at the first opportunity. And they do snicker - I swear I can hear it!!!
Of course, if a photographer stakes out a favorite perch and sets up a blind and sits waiting patiently drinking 2 or 3 thermos of coffee the hawks will decide that is the day they use the wonderful perches in the next county. This is when the Hawk Blackberry system works for them. They text each other that a photographer is walking into a blind so they decide that he/she needs some alone time to drink coffee and they all go on a day trip to annoy the photographers driving the roads 3-4 miles away.
So, like I said Red Tail Hawks can be a pain.;)
Sometimes they play with you. They watch you out of the corner of their eyes as you slow down. They tease you as you watch them for a minute or so to ensure your car/blind is OK with them only to fly away as soon as you roll the window down and aim your lens. It's almost like they can see into your car and watch you lift your camera. Then they fly away just out of range of your 500 mm 2X TC combo and laugh at you!! Yup, sometimes I can actually hear them laugh - or at least I think I can!
Red Tail Hawks can be evil creatures who torment the local nature photographers. It is apparently their job to find the best light with the best perches and sit there looking majestic until a photographer comes by. Then they snicker and fly off, only to repeat the behavior at the first opportunity. And they do snicker - I swear I can hear it!!!
Of course, if a photographer stakes out a favorite perch and sets up a blind and sits waiting patiently drinking 2 or 3 thermos of coffee the hawks will decide that is the day they use the wonderful perches in the next county. This is when the Hawk Blackberry system works for them. They text each other that a photographer is walking into a blind so they decide that he/she needs some alone time to drink coffee and they all go on a day trip to annoy the photographers driving the roads 3-4 miles away.
So, like I said Red Tail Hawks can be a pain.;)