I knew I should have taken the camera. Today, the third day of the bird count is the first one that dawned clear and bright. I decided on a shorter walk with the dogs because yesterday I slipped on an icy rock and strained a muscle in my leg. It is sore this morning.
And since we were going to just walk the meadow behind the house and then the high meadow, I did not take the camera. I have plenty of pictures of the high meadow on a sunny winter morning, after all.
As we were coming down the high meadow back toward the new road, I saw him.
Perched like a king at the top of a Ponderosa Pine, he sat, solemnly surveying his kingdom.
It was a Red-tail hawk, sunning himself. It would have been a perfect picture.
He was still against the blue New Mexico sky.
The sun was behind me as we walked along the meadow edge.
And I did not have my camera.
Calm and lordly, he watched us walk all the way down to the new road.
The only thing that moved was his head.
And I did not have my camera.
Darn!
Always, always take the camera.
If you don't take it, that will be the day you want it.
How many times will I beat my head against this particular wall?
Ah, well.
Today's count:
- Dark-Eyed Juncos -- 9
- Northern Flicker -- 1
- Stellar's Jays -- 5
- Scrub jays -- 2
- Red-tail Hawk -- 1
I have to make do with a picture from Wiki-Commons.
3 comments:
Shucks! I meant to do that bird count this year. Oh well. Maybe your hawk will be back tomorrow!
Our older son was doing the bird count this year. We went for a hike yesterday afternoon and, among other birds, saw a huge flock of over 200... somethings. Both he and my husband looked through our bird books and also looked these birds up online, but they only narrowed them down. They never could find exactly what species we saw.
What a good idea doing a bird count...of course we are at least a month away from being able to do that.
We actually have an eagle around here.
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