After a long migration from their winter grounds in Argentina, the Swainson’s hawks have returned to the Colorado plains. This past Saturday, I had numerous sightings and photo ops with them. As their numbers increase in the coming weeks, Swainson’s will actually seem to outnumber our common year-round resident hawks, the red tails.

This particular one didn’t seem to want its picture taken, giving me a nice flyby while making a lot of noise. I love the call of the Swainson’s. It is the typical screech / scream you expect a raptor to make and they can be, as you see, quite vocal.

With a very long flight to Argentina to prepare for, this juvenile needs to get in shape fast. Taken a couple weeks ago, this Swainson’s hawk nest had two little ones this year.

While its coloring belies its age, this one was already nearly as big as dad. While it had already taken its first flights, it was a bit unsteady in some breezy winds but used the extra lift the wind provided to practice hopping up and down while flapping.

Swainson’s hawks spend their winters in South America and have one of the longest migrations of any raptor. In the coming weeks, they will begin gathering and then start the long journey.

And just like that, the Swainson’s hawks are back for the summer and in force it would appear. I saw no less than five different pairs in a relatively small area this past Sunday. Last year seemed to be a down year for them so it was good to see them again.

This handsome fellow was definitely trying to impress his mate, working hard on getting a new nest started. On of another pair actually was staking out its territory by antagonizing a much larger golden eagle that happened to be in the area.

These are really fun birds to photograph as they are usually quite tolerant of humans and can put on a nice show. Their insanely long migration from Argentina makes them pretty fascinating to me.

Certainly I have seen my share of bad behavior at the refuge by visitors and it appears the managers are taking it seriously. This new guard was ensuring the regulations about where you are allowed to go were adhered to closely. Swainson’s hawks are only here for the summer though so I assume this is only a temporary hire.

Can you hear me now?

This Swainson’s hawk was very vocal and did not seem to approve of having its picture taken recently.

These summertime visitors to Colorado appear in great numbers in the spring as they arrive for mating season. In late summer, they will begin their journey to their winter homes in South America.

As this image shows, they are quite vocal, sounding off to voice their displeasure. Their call is in many ways the quintessential sound you imagine when you think of a hawk screeching.

Have a great weekend, everyone, and make some noise! 😉  

Having just completed an incredible migration from Argentina, this gorgeous hawk wasn’t too tired to use its wings to give me a bit of a show. It gave me some nice poses as it sat in this tree and then got bored with me and decided to move on.

More and more of these raptors are arriving on the Colorado plains where they will create their summer homes, mate, and fledge young. Come the fall, they will make the long journey back to South America. Some years, at the height of summer, I will spot more of these than even the year-round red-tailed hawks that we routinely see.

I thought my photo excursion was done for the day when I happened across these two. Mom had caught a prairie dog and was feeding it to her recently fledged young one.

Of course they stopped eating when I arrived but it was still a pretty cool scene. It won’t be long and these two will begin their long, long migration to Argentina for the winter.

This was taken with my new Canon R5 and I have to say, I continue to be quite impressed with it. The extraordinary high resolution really brings out the details. In this shot, notice the wood of the pole and the birds’ feathers. Just perfect!

I figured it was a matter of days before I spotted my first Swainson’s hawk and sure enough, I did this past weekend. This handsome one was staking out a pretty common spot for them at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.

These guys have one of the longest migrations of any animal, coming all the way from Argentina to the western United States for mating season. In the summer here in Colorado, it almost seems like their numbers are greater than the more common, year-round resident red tail hawk.

I’m sure I will get many more pictures of them this summer, hopefully ones that are more active than this one. I reckon it was resting after a 6,000 mile commute.