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.
