Garden - winter sunlight

This beautiful creature flew down and perched outside our kitchen as I was taking a break from my unproductive day. It’s a hawk I think but don’t know for sure. Needless to say the other birds in the garden at the time disappeared pretty quickly. It sat on that branch about 40 feet from our window for just enough time to allow me to capture this shot and then of it went again. We don’t see many raptors here in the winter and it’s the first time I’ve seen one of these. We did have a red-tailed hawk in past years but I’ve seen no sign of it this year.

The mid-afternoon sunlight at this time of year is great for showing off the bright colors of last season’s growth along our garden paths. The clear blue sky is also a great backdrop for the trees. This one in our neighbor’s garden is a favorite of mine but its profile is beginning to be confused by its messier peers.

Hamish (the cat) and Charley (Great Pyrenees) joined me for a quick stroll.