Day 17.118: Hawk-watch is back

After a single brief sighting a week or so ago, it's been quiet on the broad-winged hawk front again until today. As we were getting ready to take E5N1 to the first night of his instrumental concert, I saw a hawk fly swiftly through the trees and land in the tree below where we had seen them nest-building weeks ago.

I was frustrated that I couldn't get a decisive identification shot of the tail, but it seemed likely it was one of the broad-winged hawks.

Then, a few minutes later, I saw fly by again - this time with something in its talons. Again it landed quite a way away, but thanks to 450 mm of focal length, I was able to get some decent pictures as it feasted on its chipmunk on a tree branch and gave us a good view of its wide tail bands for identification purposes.