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I like to watch ospreys fish.
Also saw a golden eagle in Wyoming Wednesday. Big birds

This little kestrel hit my window trying to catch dinner a couple months ago. It sat there for about 1/2 hour till it regained it's senses and then flew away

I too like watching Ospreys fish, that midair shudder to shake the water off after a catch just amazes me. Aerodynamics and gravity shouldn’t allow that, yet they do it with ease all while carrying their catch.

As far as the rest of the hawks, I have no use for them or the great horned owl, there needs to be a season on them.

There needs to be unlimited season on them - like back n the day when grand dad shot every chicken hawk he saw. The hawks still lived through that ok

Dead ones.

We have coopers hawks and red tailed hawks in our woodlot.
I've seen a Coopers Hawk go after a fledgling Piletated Woodpecker.
I pitied the poor Coopers Hawk once the parents came after him.

picture of a Coopers Hawk that would visit our feeder waiting for foolish birds.



heres the same Coopers Hawk with a foolish Morning Dove.

I like hearing and seeing all raptors, always have. Some of my favorites include the peregrine falcon, marsh hawks, some of the smaller raptors like sharp-shinned and coopers hawks and of course the kestrel. I love hearing the various owls in the area an identifying by call.

Owls are my favorite, so many different shapes and sizes. The eyes are always the focal point.

Gulo, your Great Grays are on my bucket list. Such a cool bird.

Awesome pictures tray, I’m with you owls are my favorite. I love watching the burrowing owls, funny little guys.

Ospreys are awesome. I also love the bobbing and weaving my barn owls do. not a fan of the baldies though.

Hawks and eagles are my favorite.

I have to say Christine and I were impressed by a Bald Eagle standing on a deer carcass in the median of Hwy 8 just outside of Rhinelander, WI. I'll just say HUGE, watch traffic drive by, interrupting it's dinner!

My favorite raptor I saw was probably 20 years ago, came out of the house to find a Snowy Owl perched on the eave of the barn over looking the snow covered pasture on a crisp early morning at sunrise.

Ospreys are neat. I like watching them fish while I m fishing.

Before I witnessed it, I always figured they would swoop down and gracefully snag a fish in their talons and soar away with a meal.

Maybe it happens that way sometimes but I have not seen it. What I see is anything but graceful. They will hoover briefly then drop down and smack the water with the sound of someone doing a bad belly flop. They will then struggle to take off and get airborne with wet feathers and their meal if they were successful, which they are not more often than they are.

If they were successful they are usually being harassed by other ospreys, gulls or eagles trying to steal their fish as they struggle to gain altitude.

They earn their meals!

Barred owl.

I have a fondness for harriers. Their numbers have rebounded after a long decline caused by the DDT that was sprayed in the fields, that inhibited egg shell formation, so a lot of grassland raptors here nearly died out. We have marsh harriers, hen harriers, and pallid harriers here.




These two spent a while flying like that, but I think Mr. Harrier was rejected. The next day, I found some white feathers with blood near the spot where I photographed them, and then saw him, pretty beat up and preening, alone.


These are pretty rare, especially in Europe. Most pallid harriers there migrate to and from Africa through Malta, and the Maltese have a habit of shooting everything that moves. Our Siberian population is more stable, but cheap pesticides are a big threat.


Black kites are everywhere here, but they are pleasant birds, and their call means spring has arrived. Our population migrates to India every winter, just like our white-tailed eagles.







I was lucky to find this HUGE osprey nest on a Scots pine in the middle of a big peatbog/muskeg, where normal people don't normally go.





Falcons are difficult to photograph in flight. I spotted this one flying along the road when we were driving through the Kulunda steppe with my dad. I asked to stop the car, jumped out, focused and took this picture. Hobbies are not very common here. We also have two pairs of peregrine falcons nesting on tall buildings in my neighborhood, but I've been too lazy to go there and take pictures, since there are plenty of good pictures of them already taken by actual birdwatchers.




Few people like goshawks, because they are chicken thieves. I like watching them hunt pigeons in the city. I photographed this one up north on Vorna Hatl, the Crow Day, when the Khanty celebrate the return of crows signalling the beginning of the spring. A few other crows and magpies tried to save their friend, but the goshawk was determined.