A Young Hawk Plays "Kick the Can"

 

I was out at Windy Point on Grand Lake's southside last week for a sunrise photo shoot...wanted to catch the rising sun, which I did, a couple of Eagles, ditto there as well, and some huge White Pelicans, before they head south...chalk that one up as well.

But the best photo op came out of nowhere and quite by surprise...

Some half hour after the sun came up, about 8am, I heard a noise and the cry of a Hawk...so I looked up and this young Juvenile Red Tail {no, it's NOT a Coopers Hawk} was standing on a outdoor grill that the ODNR places around the state park.

The youngster allowed me to approach, snapping photo after photo, as I got closer...I fully expected him to fly off, like most Hawks and wild birds would do...but not this guy, I ended up getting some 35 or 40 photos of various quality, some good, some blah, and some blurred and lousy...however I was able to get very close, which made me think perhaps this young male was injured...that turned out not to be the case...he just wanted to show me his "game" it appeared.  The Hawk then proceeded to play a game of "Kick the Can" for my camera and his {and my} amusement...This went on for about 10 minutes until another Juvenile, this one a Bald Eagle flew overhead...the Hawk took flight and my photo shooting for the morning was pretty well done...

Back Later>>>>