Pretty cool raptors for book ends at my folks' place in SD. The Rough-legged was chilling at one end of some trees, and the Prairie Falcon was at the other. The last pic shows why the Prairie Falcon was around. Though they won't take enough to affect a hunting season or population by any means, the falcons do fill their tummies with pheasant in the fall and winter season around the place.
Actually BEFORE Snowmageddon (just one of the titles of the historic 17.1 inch snowfall that just fell here in the Mpls area) I took these shots of a first year Red-tailed Hawk. He was hanging out near Springbrook. Staff there said that a couple of days before, he had gotten himself a couple of squirrels. Makes sense - the feeders would have been kept full to make sure lots of birds would be coming in anticipation of banding. Squirrels love feeders/seed, too, and any quick-thinking hawk would take advantage of that. 
Note that the bird does NOT have red tail! He won't, until he starts to molt it in next year. See how the first year birds get "training wheels", especially on their tails? The feathers are just a bit longer, and you can see if here on that white edging on the tail.
This final shot shows the hawk locating and taking off after possible prey!
My dad has a trail cam set up. Apparently there may be some consorting between species when everyone else is asleep . . .
Anyone who has ever tried to photograph Northern Cardinals knows that they actually can be a bit challenging. There are not particularly accepting if you are nearby. Also never seems to be the right background for a truly nice photo. I actually got a little closer to some ideal shots this past weekend. The feeders at Springbrook were full with anticipation of banding this weekend. 
Am really trading in quality of photos for the sake of story-telling. Another set of not-great shots - but kinda cool to see a dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk do its thing in the air. They don't exactly hover - but they do seem to hang there while they check the ground below for possible furry vittles.
Not award-winning by any means, but here are a couple of shots of the Long-tailed Duck (formerly Old Squaw) that spent some time on a couple of Metro area lakes a couple of weeks ago. He is in with the Common Golden eye - can you see the one low-rider in the group? You can tell they were a little ways from shore. Cool bird, though!
How about some yummy Tufted Titmouse for a grey and blustery day? These were taken in Menomonie WI earlier this fall. This is a bird whose range appears to be shifting a bit. I would love to start seeing these in the Mpls Metro area someday. They have really strong feet for hanging in trees, like Black-capped Chickadees, so a good idea to get them out of nets right away. They also have some extreme attitude hidden under that Maximum Cuteness.
I really do live a charmed life. I get to see so many cool birds, and get to hang out with cool people. This past weekend at Springbrook Nature Center banding, I learned a ton of new (to me) information about birds from Ron Refsnider, and then - we had a Brown Creeper in hand! This is not exactly a Holy Grail, but probably not far from it. Check out how tiny they really are. And then - marvel at those long nails on the toes. The bi-colored decurved beak. And the beautiful russet feathers at the base of the tail. And while we are talking about that tail - check out the sharply pointed tips. This bird promptly flew to a near-by tree trunk and hunkered against it, in the posture I am used to seeing.
I will post lots more pics later. Busy day so will just post pics that Frank Taylor sent (thank you, Frank!) We didn't get lots, but we sure got a cool one - a Rough-legged came in! Also had Bill Clark come and sit with us, which was fantastic to learn all the great study work he is doing on the Harlani red-tails. More soon!
