Thank you for your input and this is why I'm asking for help. This is not a small bird. It's the largest hawk-like bird I've seen other than eagles at a distance or vultures. It was the size that first drew my attention to it. On our property, we always get Cooper's hawks. They make nearly a daily hunt at our feeder area so am very familiar with their sizing and this particular bird is easily half again as large as the largest Cooper's I've seen, perhaps twice that size. It is ALWAYS drawn to the pond, totally ignores the birds at the feeders, and they do not appear afraid of it, and instead of flushing from their cover (vines on old trees and large junipers around the feeders) just go about their business. Yes, it's the same bird each time. I'm not seeing one bird take the fish and photographing the other. It was eating the fish when we got the photo below. We are under a very heavy snow cover and rural, with lots of ponds in the area but since our rivers are frozen over, it's a given the ponds are too. Water and fish would be scarce and lots of animals are drawn to our pond since the heavy spring flow keeps it thawed almost perpetually. I could appreciate a fishing bird showing up here under these circumstances when it wouldn't normally frequent our property. The feathers on the back of this bird are dark, with only blotches of white when its back is to you, there is no pattern you can discern other than the faintest suggestion of a barred tail and it's is a muddy brown/grey over dark grey. I'm not looking for a 'rare' bird, but accuracy since I submit birding data and I'd sure like to get this one correct, or I'd just have to log it as unknown.

Feather, I'm also into photography. (Altho you can't tell it by the photos I am posting on this forum!! LOL) I just got a new zoom lens and I'm learning how to use it now. I hope to get lots of GOOD photos of birds, someday soon! I'm sorry you suffer from carpal tunnel. I have it too, but mildly enough that I can still draw. I'm planning on doing some bird drawings with graphite pencil, colored pencil, and water color. Those are my mediums of choice these days (I gave up oils and acrylics years ago). Did you do your artwork from photos or just from memory? I have to have a model or photo or I can't seem to get things right and I doubt that I can get a bird to sit still long enough to draw it! LOL Re: the hawks Thanks so much everyone for your input. I'm just not sure. I have seen photos of juvie red-tailed hawks that had lots of spots on their backs. To me the eyes don't look as hooded as the eyes of a red-shouldered hawk, but I would have to bow to your opinions because I've never seen one in person, just going by the photos I've seen! I'm on the lookout for more hawks...there's just something so cool about the raptors!!

I fully agree. I have a pair of birds apparently nesting somewhere on my property that I frequently see mating (or snagging birds from my birdfeeder. . . .) that I can't get close enough to with my binoculars to readily identify. Although I have fairly positively identified Coopers as being around, this pair could be either species. What's interesting is that I also have mated pairs of both Red Tails & Red Shoulders on the property, & the 3 pairs are always bickering between themselves. Even the crows won't get involved when they're going at it - lol!

Lucky you to see that! Definitely broad-winged hawks! These raptors will form flocks of up to 1000 birds when they migrate south. The only other raptors in NA known to form large flocks are Swainson's Hawks but it's unlikely that you saw this species as they are more of a western species.