Red Shouldered Hawk | Lee Smith Photography

Wildlife of Green Cay

Red Shouldered Hawk – Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge

Photo by Lee Smith

I got a story…
I went to photograph an early morning sunrise with my friend Ivan. We traveled to Green Cay only to find that there was a gate and they do not open till sunrise. It was 5:30am and sunrise was at 6:50am. So we left and went to another location – the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. We took many shots along the river and then as the sun came up we began photographing the wildlife. We parked the car in the lot, and began a long trek across the refuge. Looks like they had just pruned and cleaned much of this area and we barely saw any real wildlife, but did get some landscape photos. After walking about an hour and traveling several miles walking with our backpacks, we got back to where the car was parked, only to find two Red Shouldered Hawks perched on a branch making a commotion of a Pine tree. We took many photos of them in the tree before they flew off. I was really put off though, that we walked all over that area – not seeing hardly any wildlife, only to find these two beautiful hawks right by our car!

(Click on the images below for a larger view)

Red Shouldered Hawk - 9400 — Red Shouldered Hawk – 9400

Red Shouldered Hawk - 9400-cropped — Red Shouldered Hawk – 9400-cropped

Red Shouldered Hawk - 9266 — Red Shouldered Hawk – 9266

Birds of Prey over South Florida

Photos by lee Smith

I traveled to Western Broward to locate some of my favorite birds to photograph – Birds of Prey. I located the Eagle nest, a Red Shouldered Hawk and a young Osprey. The Eagle was a bit shy and did not offer a real clear shot, but I will visit her again.