I always hoped to see that back when I had a pair of resident red tail hawks, their nest was about 60 yards from the back corner of my house, on my land, and they hunted my yard as a pair for years. Age must have finally done them in, it's been a couple years since I've seen either of them, and their nest is showing signs of falling apart. Last time I saw the male, he was clearly not as coordinated as usual, kind of had trouble landing on a perch he had been using for a decade, never saw him again and hadn't seen the female in at least 6 months before that. I had them for the first 10+ years I lived in my home and miss watching them hunt. Both of them saw hundreds of squirrels get shot, neither ever cared and never touched one if I left it out, scavengers would get them at night. I was surprised the first spring how fast they chase their young off after they can fly, two weeks at the most.This morning I noticed a squirrel in the "zone of certain death" and took my shot. No sooner than I put the rifle back on the wall a hawk swooped in and got a free breakfast. Anyway I really dig these birds, unfortunately the only picture was what I could get from my phone of him flying off. Still a cool morning for me. Makes me want to look into scope cams
FX dreamline compact .22 w/ Element immersive 14x50 canoed the squirrel @28 yards, phone snapped the pic.
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It probably was just going to perch on something near you, I had one land on my rifle barrel once, came from behind and scared the sh*( out of me. I didn't move and stayed frozen, it stayed perched on my rifle barrel for what seemed an eternity before deciding hunting wasn't any good there and flying off. It never even seemed to acknowledge I was sitting there.
