Prairie Hawks in flight

With spring sprung, there are an abundance of hawks wheeling in the sky over the Prairies now.  Through the winter, the Rough-legged hawks had the air to themselves and now Red-tailed, Swainson’s and Broad-wings have joined them.  This dark morph Swainson’s was beautiful and wheeled around me for a couple of turns.

This Red-tailed hawk screamed at me when I stopped to photograph it flying over the fields.  It flew beside me and let loose one of the shrieks that Hollywood still often uses to dub over the Bald Eagle’s less impressive one.

Another Swainson’s launched out of this tree and looked beautiful in the warm, evening light.

One other Red-tailed watched me out of the corner of its eye as it glided past but saved any vocalizations for another time.  This hawk was one of the few I saw that wasn’t flying.  I did not see a nest nearby so I think the bird was just taking a break from hunting.