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Hi, I'm Tamera, a professional wedding, portrait and boudoir photographer in Colorado Springs. But this blog isn't about my professional work; no, it's a daily love note to my beautiful city, where I've lived for most of my life. I love it here and I hope you enjoy seeing Colorado Springs through my eyes and lens!

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12 January 2015

Red-shouldered hawk (?)


This hawk was spotted on the Colorado College campus on Saturday, a very pleasant, warm day in contrast to frigid, icy Friday. It looked like a red-shouldered hawk, and it sounded like a red-shouldered hawk (that is to say, it sounded like a dog's "squeaky toy"), but there aren't supposed to be any red-shouldered hawks around these parts, especially in winter! Per Wikipedia, "Eastern [red-shouldered hawk] population winters from s. Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Ohio and s. New England south to Gulf Coast; occasionally throughout breeding range. In winter, reported south to Jalisco, state of México, and Veracruz, Mexico. Western population largely non-migratory. Throughout its winter range, this species avoids higher elevations. [Emphasis mine.] Eastern birds occasionally wander west (e.g., Colorado, Kansas, West Texas, Manitoba, North Dakota) in migration; Western birds have strayed east to Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, and Utah, and north to Washington."

So maybe this is an eastern red-shouldered hawk that wandered into high elevation Colorado in the middle of winter, which makes it a very rare sight indeed! And I would say he was cute, but he was really giving me the stink-eye when I was taking his picture, so maybe he didn't like me much ;^)

3 comments:

from Madrid said...

A beautiful photo of one that is not wanted.

Tomás.

Stefan Jansson said...

When this sort of thing happens in my area the bird watchers quickly gathers.

William Kendall said...

What a beauty. Well, if there are enough pigeons around, this one has enough of a food source for the winter.