Hi Doug and Tweeters,

Great photos as always. Most interesting to me this time was seeing the picture of the Red-tailed Hawk making off with the shorebird.

A couple days ago, standing down by Shoveler Pond looking at shorebirds, I observed a large raptor high in the air suddenly stoop, with impressive speed, coming within 10 feet of me and the peeps, so close I could hear the air rushing by its wings. Its fast speed and falcon-like wing shape during the stoop had me thinking it was a Peregrine Falcon, and I was pretty surprised to see it was a "plain 'ol Red-tail" as it went over to perch. I knew Red-tails were opportunists that would take a diverse array of prey, but I didn't know their repertoire including falconesque predation of shorebirds. Cool!

Good birding,
Evan Houston
Seattle, WA