Red-tailed Hawk 9/23

This morning I was looking at my webcams ( https://pacificaview.net/livecam/ ) and noticed a Red-tailed Hawk sitting on the light pole. I've been working on augmenting my photography with more video work and this beautiful bird looked like a good target to use for practice. I grabbed my camera and went up to the roof. The hawk didn't disappoint - he did some preening, some "silent squawks", and also took flight. Lots of good stuff.

Since my monopod was still in my truck from chasing whales yesterday, I went completely hand-held, which is a bit tricky with my 400f2.8 lens. So I tried sitting and propping the lens on my knee. That worked well until he took flight - that position made it very difficult for me to track him, as you can see. So after he alighted on another light pole, I dashed down to get my monopod, hoping he'd still be there when I got back up. Indeed he was. So the second time he took off, I was able to track him a bit better (but it was also a little easier since he was further away).

Thank you Mr Red-tailed for a fun morning!