Red-tail

I woke up this morning to find four inches of snow on the ground, and it was still snowing. I scanned the view out my bedroom window and noticed right away a "blob" in one of the Locust trees up the street. I could see with my naked eye that it was a hawk, so I quickly threw on some clothes, ran downstairs and grabbed a Nikon and my 300 mm lens. I went out on the front porch to take a photo, and discovered to my dismay that I didn't have a clear view of the hawk from the lower vantage point! My favorite Japanese maple was in the way. I decided to try shooting through the tree anyway, hand-holding the camera and the heavy lens, and got this photo, with the darker gray areas in the sky the result of out-of-focus branches in the foreground. Then I went outside, grabbed a tripod and did some proper pictures. When it was time to choose, I found that I liked the photograph with the more complex sky the best. After I took the photo, I went and grabbed a spotting scope and was able to identify the bird as a Red-tailed hawk. It apparently stayed on that branch, in the snowstorm, for at least an hour or more, its head swiveling from side to side, looking for any sign of motion below that might end up being breakfast.