Red Tailed Hawk Teenager

Teenagers do the most unpredictable and risky things.

Take this red tailed hawk for instance. 

It created quite a ruckus when Tibby discovered it and they were found hopping and leaping around, facing off over by the chicken coop.

Here's a pic so you can get a sense of its size.   The chicken coop is just to the right of the pic.

It was down on the ground, wings out, trying to look as big as possible waving her wings high, on its tiptoes. It and Tibby were doing an elaborate dance.  

We called Tibby off and it relaxed.   A bit.

We got the camera and the bird book and I got as close as I dared with out totally freaking it out and getting attacked.   I figured hawk claws were not something I wanted in contact with my actual flesh. 

The tail was not quite red yet, but the rest of it sure looks like a juvenile red tailed.   

When I was done, we backed off and went into the house and watched through a window.   A little while later, it took off - slowly and inexpertly, floundering in the air a bit - and then it hung out in a tree not far away for a couple of hours.  




It acted like it might have been a bit hurt and we were really surprised when we called Tibby off and it didn't immediately fly off.  We're assuming it tried to get one of the chickens or ducks and missed, or got tangled in the thorny locust tree next to the coop, or something.   Hopefully that knocked some sense into it and it'll stick with rabbits and mice from now on.