Some Red-shouldered Hawks

There seems to be a fairly large  number of Red-shouldered Hawks being reported this year. A juvenile was spotted at Peace Valley Park in Bucks County, PA on January 28th and I was able to photograph it on January 31st. That same day I found a totally different Red-shouldered juvenile sitting on a wire near the intersection of Hilltown Road and Route 152. On February 16th, I photographed the same Peace Valley Park bird dining on a Meadow Vole (Rat-a-Sushi!)

Today at Nockamixon State Park, I photographed an adult Red-shouldered Hawk and one juvenile. However, I also saw three other juvenile Red-shouldered Hawks in trees along Rte 563, south of the intersection with Rte 412. For comparison purposes, I added the photo in the thumbnails below of yet another juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk (one with dark eyes by the way) taken about  a year ago at Nockamixon State Park.

Adult Red-shouldered Hawk At Nockamixon, February 2009

Finally, today on my way home from Nockamixon State Park, I drove towards Green Lane on John Fries Highway in Quakertown. I actually saw two more juvenile Red-shouldered Hawks. That's a total of seven different Red-shouldered Hawks today...one adult and six juveniles.

I went back to Nockamixon State Park this morning (Thursday, February 21st) and photographed four different juvenile Red-shouldered Hawks. I did not see the adult I saw yesterday.

Please click on the thumbnails or the captions to see a larger image...thanks!

  Updated February 15th, 2009

© Howard B. Eskin 2008                              Please email your comments to hbeskin@voicenet.com