Raptor Wednesday

What you don’t see here are the Blue Jays (Cyanocitta cristata) that were buzzing this Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis). I may have inadvertently flushed the hawk from some prey on the ground on the hill below me, since when it first landed it looked like it was stretching a piece of flesh between talon and beak. And then the Jays, who are ever vigilant in Green-Wood, were on the bird, making it do a little branch dancing. This hawk is still sporting its juvenile plumage; no red tail yet. Also, the cere, the soft skin at the base of bill, isn’t the yellow of a mature bird.