raptors

May 1, 2026

Sara Kate Wilkinson

Sara Kate Wilkinson

— 3 min read
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May 1, 2026
Bird of the Yesterday: red-shouldered hawk, local champion

Rabbit Rabbit

Where: Huntley Meadows Park

When: December 18, 2023

Things I Am Thinking About:

  • As you are reading this, I am likely to be on my way home, praise the Lord. I have been watching my face and hair (and body and mood) deteriorate day by day while I’m here. I cannot wait to take a shower with my own products and then sleep in my own bed.
  • I will sleep for 13 consecutive, nonstop hours.
  • At this military scientific assembly, they were doing field surgery practice on a bunch of dead pigs this morning. The pigs were all laid out on banquet tables on their back, with their little piggy front hooves sticking straight up in the air and then held out of the way by wrapping them in little duct-tape handcuffs, stretching the tape out and down, and taping them to the table legs. It is an image I will be unlikely to forget any time soon.
  • Nerds gummie clusters are the best candy.

BOTD: red-shouldered hawk.

The featured photo was taken on December 19, 2023. This hawk was the 8th bird I listed. This photo was the one that made me say, "Oh, this is more than fun. This is great. I want everyone to look at this photo of this hawk."

People like red-tailed hawks, but honestly, I hardly ever see them; they are a true neutral for me. I have listed them, but I have no opinion on them yet. Cooper's hawks are the neighborhood hawk, they are slender and friendly. The sharp-shinned hawk will stalk bird feeders to eat small birds, so I can't really love them.

I really love a red-shouldered hawk. I am always happy to see one. They are large, the coloring is beautiful, and they are agile hunters and leisurely diners. A lot of my photos of them, they are in mid-meal with something in their talons. And they will stay still for a long time, just scanning the ground, waiting to see a frog or a field mouse to grab.

Here are some more photos of this very beautiful hawk:

3/18/2024. Cross County Trail between Accotink and Wakefield. He was VERY high up with that frog he had caught; I remember being shocked at how well the photo turned out.
2/18/2024. This one looks so sleek and magazine cover-ready I wasn't even sure it was the same bird at first.
11/13/2025. This was just last year, at Huntley, natch.
2/18/2024. This is the same bird as in the second photo. An uncommonly beautiful specimen.

I have heard a song sparrow every morning this week on the way into the labs at 5:45am, and I finally saw him this morning; still dark, just his silhouette with his mouth open and singing his fool head off.

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