I’m back to bird-watching. I haven’t done a bird-watching post since I watched the little hummingbird in June of 2016. It’s not that I decided it was time. It’s just that I noticed the two large hawks flying around the treetops of our woods.

I first noticed the large nest at the top of a sycamore tree visible from my kitchen window last year. I never saw any fledgling hawks and really don’t know if the nest was even productive last year.

The hawks are back. And they’ve been active the last couple of days, sitting on the nest,

flying to the nest,

flying away from the nest,

standing on the nest,

and sitting and looking around some more.

Sometimes one will wait nearby,

before it trades places with the other on the nest.

They are fascinating to watch as they fly around the treetops to and from the nest. They’ve been bringing sticks and stringy things to the nest. One of them seems to be more particular than the other about how the sticks are arranged in the nest. She picks them up, moves them around, presses them down, tugs them out of place, and generally fixes things up. I wish I could see up into the nest. For the first time I’ve wished I had a small camera drone, although I probably wouldn’t use it for fear of scaring the hawks away.

I’m shooting these pictures from my kitchen window, using a tri-pod with my Olympus Omd Em1 mirror-less camera and a 14-150mm 4.0-5.6 zoom lens. I have it fully extended. The lighting is challenging. I’m trying to spot-meter the birds, but they move around a lot so I’m not always successful.

I’m doing the 365Project photography challenge this year and am trying to devote this week to pictures of the hawks. I’m having fun watching them. I hope you’re enjoying the pictures.

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