Those are very bad photos of a Cooper’s hawk. A few weeks ago I was in the Pinaleno Mts wandering and stalking deer with a camera. Heading down a trail back to my humble vehicle a hawk flew over my head and landed in a tree. It called a few times. I answered it. It called back. And so on.

Then it flew a few hundred feet to another tree and we repeated the process. I don’t have a good zoom lens (max 70mm on the camera at the time) so I ran through the forest to try to get a picture. It called. I called. It flew. I ran.

That was the first time I think I understood why people still hunt. It was exhilarating tracking something and forgetting for a moment that you were running through the forest and just doing it. It was the feeling of “being in the moment” and that’s really kind of cool. I strongly recommend experiencing it if you can.