osprey!? In the burbs!? gotta go count the beta's in the pond... Lori, you'll find ospreys through out inland Florida, wherever there are lakes there are ospreys...just look at all the power pole top boxes installed along I-4 to keep them from building nests in the transmission line towers.... You are probably using way too much fish emulsion fertilizer :-) I'll bet you're right Lou ;-) Tom

Boy, those are ACTIVE little babies, Alice! The one keeps flapping his "wings" until he falls over! The adult face is amazing! Almost looks like a primate from some angles! Fun to watch all the seemingly impossible ways they can turn their heads! At the Decorah eagle nest the first egg hatched yesterday and the second today. I haven't seen the babies yet. About the only time the adults get up off the chicks is at the Changing of The Guard and feeding time. Decorah is streamed by USTREAM too, and all the advertising is very disrupting! A few days ago I had Decorah on and they went to an obnoxious ad just as "something" was happening! By the time the ad was over the "something" was over too! Grrr! Skybird Here is a link that might be useful: Decorah Eagle Cam -- and more!

The only thing with Crossley's Raptor guide is that, for relative beginners, it's photograph overload. Turn to any particular page and one could quickly feel overwhelmed by intricate plumage differences that ultimately jumble together to form one big complex hawk in your memory. Kind of like a library without a card catalog. There's very little you can do other than commit some field marks, flight styles, and behavior to memory. Or, just get good pictures and ask me. :-) Although there are times I have trouble IDing a hawk myself. Depends on how good of a look I can get. I think what else may be helpful is to always know what you might be likely to see in your area. In CT, your Red-taileds are going to be easterns. They pretty much all look the same. You probably have many year-round Red-tailed residents and the guy you photographed up there probably has a mate on a nest right now. A nesting (adult) pair of Red-taileds have the rufous tails. A juvenile (last year's brood) bird will lack a rufous tail and will show brown and white tail bands instead. A clean, lightly marked underside is more indicative of an adult- juvies have more brown markings and look streaky underneath. Some adults are heavily marked too though! Adult Red-taileds will also show a thin dark rim around the back of the underwing. You can see that on the bird you photographed. I recommend Dunne/Sibley/Sutton 'Hawks in Flight, 2nd Edition'. I have to say that I bought the Crossley guide for pleasure rather than purpose. I love the photos! But when I first sat down with it, I could already score very high on the "quizzes" he embedded within it. So, I learned my skills elsewhere. Hawks in Flight was a huge help with that.

Can't say what kind of hawk it is but it could be a young one that hasn't achieved adult coloration yet. Young hawks tend to be bolder than adults and that may be why you could get so close. He may also have been invading the redtail's territory and that's why they were so upset. Just a thought.