This is why I almost always have my camera on the car seat beside me, lens cap off and ready to go.
I was coming home a few days ago and saw a big bird on the ground in the driveway. I thought it might be a hawk and stopped. It at once flew up to the barn roof and posed a bit.
Not great as I was shooting into the sun . . . but then he flew off to the trees.
Where he or she posed nicely.
I think it's a young one -- the way it was blundering around suggest that this might have been an early solo. Plus for years we've had a family of Red Tails whose young uns show up down at the lower place around this time of year.
Seeing a raptor is always kind magical to me. And these pictures are why I always take my camera with me.
