Morning Greeting

A pair of hawks live in a large oak tree nearby, and this morning one of them flew down to greet me as I took my post workout cool down walk up my neighbor’s driveway. I saw the Hawk alight when I was about 60 feet away. I slowly inched forward, wondering how close I could get, tapping pics with my phone all the way. I would’ve gotten a clearer pic if I’d had my camera, but thankfully I was able to inch within 20’ or so before it lifted gracefully and swung up to its nest.

Of course, I was left pondering the timing of the event. No doubt, the pair have been closely observing me for weeks and know that I do 6 rounds. Did the hawk count out 6 and time her greeting on my last leg?

I will be keeping a closer eye out to see if I can identify the species. Audubon tells me that we have Red-tailed, Red-shouldered, and Cooper’s Hawks here in CT from spring into summer. Looking at pics, I can rule out the red-shouldered as this one is too large and lacks the “bright orange breast”. I will be researching the other two a bit more to see if there are any tell-tale differences (besides the red tail...no pun intended). I’ll keep you posted!