This past Friday morning, as I was following one of the creeks at Huntley Meadows Park, I caught sight of a large bird perched on the trunk of a fallen tree almost right in front of me. I had a 180mm macro lens on my camera, which proved just enough for me to almost fill the frame with images of the bird.
After consultations with the naturalist staff, I believe this to be an adolescent Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus). Note that the young hawk has a band on one of its legs, which was put on it at Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland.
The hawk looks pretty bedraggled and the naturalists hypothesized that perhaps it had been harassed by some other birds and was recovering on the ground. The hawk was aware of my presence and looked in my direction a couple of times, but I stayed at a distance, fearful of disturbing it in a potentially vulnerable moment. Although I would have liked to have moved in closer for some shots, I moved away quietly after capturing some images, leaving the young bird in this position on the log as I departed.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
It sure looks like it was having bad day. It’s a reminder that all isn’t always “good.”
How can you tell where the bird was banded?
I can read some of the information on the band when I zoom in on it, including MD 20708, the zip code for the Patuxent Research Refuge.
I would like to know a little more about the banding as well. I know the call goes out for volunteers to assist periodically here in Seattle, but I have never participated.
I know very little about banding, though I must admit that my curiosity was aroused when I noticed that this bird has a band on its leg. I’m going to try to learn a bit more about it.
I’ve seen red winged blackbirds actually pecking the head of a hawk in flight but It’s hard to believe that they could rough one up like that.
Looks like he has seen better days, great shot..:-)
I never saw one of them before, at least a young one like that. It does look like it was mobbed by other birds. Nice photo, Mike.
Initially I wasn’t sure it was an eagle or osprey or hawk. The naturalist at the park eliminated the eagle and after looking at a number of different angles figure it was a hawk. It was definitely one of my coolest wildlife sightings ever.
fantastic photo mike!
Nice outing Michael and you get a great image out of it as well, very nice indeed.