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.

Being a new parent is a struggle. Sleep is a rarity and it is just a lot of work. It certainly appeared its new role as a father was taking a toll on this handsome fellow. Despite it being early in the morning when they would be most active, this guy was having a hard time keeping his eyes open and seemed to be trying to catch a quick nap.

The return of the Argentinians!

I knew these gorgeous raptors would be returning to the Colorado plains soon but I hadn’t had a chance to venture out to find them. Today I finally did and I saw quite a lot of them. Two, in particular, put on a fantastic air show for me as they worked on a nest northeast of Denver.

During the summer, their numbers will swell here to where I seem to see more of them than the more common red-tailed hawk. The winter will find them in the much warmer environs of Argentina after one of the longest migrations known.

A fun capture of this very cool raptor taken this past weekend. These hawks arrive in Colorado in great numbers in the spring, seemingly outnumbering the year-round Red-tailed Hawk we often see. The Swainson’s mate and fledge their young here then head to South America for the winters. They will begin that journey here very soon.