Had these two overlooking the front yard this evening.

One of those things took a chunk out of my scalp about 18 years ago. I was taking summer Spanish at south plains college (because I couldn’t pass Spanish 2301 at TTU). I was walking into the building when one clipped me good. I made a run for the door and barely made it before round 2. When we got in class the teacher told us to avoid the south entrance, as there were some “aggressive birds”. The blood pouring from my scalp confirmed that!

Cool looking birds. Have never seen one around here though.

I enjoy seeing any of the less common birds but especially the Raptors.

Where I live (Deep East Texas, Pineywoods) we have Sharp Shinned Hawks migrate through each winter. Those are fun to watch in the woods as they hunt squirrels and small birds.

We had them migrate thru Colorado County a couple of time per year. They did not stay to long each time and they roosted in shorter thicker canopy trees. I caught these one foggy morning drying their wings out as the fog lifted. These photos were mid August 2008.



I caught these migrating thru Goliad County on March 30, 2013 on a very dark and overcast day. They were up high and I first thought they were vultures till I looked at them in my binos. It was a hawk/raptor just not exactly sure which one since the kept circling higher and higher and then drifted out of sight. Seen something very similar with raptors in Kendall County each fall and spring when I plowed the fields to plant. They would show up in numbers and sit on fence posts as I plowed the fields. One field I lost count over 90 of them sitting on fence posts around the 40 acre field. No mouse, rat, snake, rabbit, etc stood a chance with that many at one time.


I also had the Whitetail Kite move thru Goliad County for a couple of years. They would sit and hoover above the plowed fields then dive to down to catch something. Best I could tell it was insects of some type. They where great in the air but not very agile or nimble on the ground. They were quite clumsy in the plowed ground which was to be expected.

Great shots guys. STx do you see many harris hawks in your area?

I caught a few having lunch a couple of years ago.

We have a ton of MS Kites in the summer in my neighborhood. Seems their numbers grow every year too, which is really cool.

Great photos, folks. I’ve been seeing them every day for the last couple of months. Beautiful birds.

I need some of those hawks in my neighborhood to clean up a bunch of these squirrels

We do have quite a few Kites here

There is a healthy population that come back to my neighborhood every year. They def get aggressive during nesting season. I've seen them dive bomb my daughter, old people walking down the street, dogs etc. Very cool birds to watch.

My grandmother had a pair nest in a large mesquite tree in her front yard just north of Sweetwater for several years….

Was fun watching them…

Beautiful

We have several patrolling near me for grasshoppers, wish about 10,000 more would show up!

we have several Kites that show up around here every summer.

There's a sign up at the park on 19th west of TTU campus warning of a nesting pair that has been bombing walkers/joggers. Some things never change!

Cool birds!