~ Maiden Flight ~

...Boy, was this exciting! I've been watching this Red-tailed Hawk's nest since December....and i really never noticed anything.it was always empty..then one day, I saw a very large hawk messing about like it was cleaning house...there were two actually.
....But when i checked back later...Nothing! Huh! Oh well i thought to myself.
....But i would check back on this off and on, then, one day, and much to my surprise i saw a birds head just barely visible above the nest line. I got that shot of one of the two leaving in an earlier photo i shared...it was at nightfall and the sky was just crazy, Oklahoma skies are like that. If you do look for it, it is the dark photograph of a hawk flying out of it's nest.
...So i checked back again this weekend and the mother hawk was still there, her head sticking out just above the nest line....after some time, she flew off.
...I managed to get some shots but nothing to speak of. She is huge by the way, big as they come i suppose if not bigger! Anyways, she flew about 1000yds from the nest and just waited there, I assumed she was hunting...then i looked back towards the nest and BAM! A very small hawk is just flapping away, practicing using its wings...boy oh boy, i was taking shots, checking results and fine tuning the manual settings, kicking myself for not using auto. I will say it was difficult with all the branches in the way. i have a few of the young hawk branching as well, although, the photo you see here was the most interesting...hope you like it!
Birds learn and hone their ability to fly several weeks before actually flying. They practice with short takeoffs and landings on and around the nest, gaining strength and improving their agility and landing ability, it's called branching
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