I was sitting reading on the deck outside my bedroom when I saw this Red-Tailed hawk (or at least that’s what I think it is) circling overhead. Eventually it settled in a nearby tree. When I’m sitting on my deck there’s always the possibility of a bird picture, so I had an appropriate camera/lens combination right next to me. After a while I got the sense that the bird was about to take off. I was right and I managed to get a few pictures before it flew away. The first one shows the bird spreading its wings just as it was about to takeoff. She second was taken only a second or two later when the bird was already into its flight.

They’re certain not my best pictures (once it got going the bird moved very quickly and the tree was some distance away) but I like them, particularly the second one because it’s a view you just don’t see with the naked eye – it happens so fast. And just look at the talons in the second picture. I wouldn’t want to be on the wrong end of those.

Taken with a Sony RX10 IV.