Made in the shade

I was talking to my neighbor Stephanie this morning. She had passed me in her truck on the way to work and I called to see if she had seen the osprey in the shade of the sycamore tree that I saw not ten minutes later?

She had not, unfortunately.  I mentioned to her that I got around this country a fair bit and that in my opinion there is no better place in the world that I have visited, to consistently see raptors than our own fair Santa Margarita River valley. Serious business. I say hello to a couple red tailed hawks every morning and an occasional Cooper's.

That's why I always try to keep a camera around. Now I didn't have my super duper lens with me but I had enough to give you a general idea, even with the shadows and cross light, the photographer's bane.

Third time I have seen this guy in about a week, the other two times he was on top of the tall dead tree near the mailboxes and I didn't have anything handy to capture it with.

About a minute later I ran into this red shouldered hawk beauty, also laying out in the shade. Very happy to live on the edge of the wild. Been a nice summer. Seeing a lot of hooded orioles too.