On the Lookout

You never know what a handful of sunflower seed will attract in the desert. This morning it was this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk, perched high on a pole above our usually crowded feeders.

His arrival didn’t cause the panic that the local Cooper’s Hawks and Peregrines use to such great advantage,  but the smaller birds still treated even this relatively clunky buteo with respect, and it was some time before the feeding frenzy resumed–greatly to the relief of our seed budget.