Lose a bird in Boston, MA area?

[stuvantine]

On 13 Sep 08 at about 1000 EDT I watched a hawk bathing in a neighbor's ornamental pond in Hingham, MA. I got my camera and started taking pictures from about 15 yards away. Bird not at all bothered by my presence. After bathing, bird flew to waterfall structure at end of pond, and I had to move to get good pix. I approached to 10 yards or less as he/she preened and dried off. Bird eyed me with obvious lack of concern. Bird then turned, launched directly at me, and landed on top of a stone gatepost at my eye level and about three feet from the lens of my camera. Bird allowed me to take more pix, and then turned his/her back to me and went on preening.

I'm not a falconer or a birder with a life list, but I am aware that this is migration time for a lot of raptors and Boston is on the Eastern Flyway. My casual birdwatcher's tentative ID is young Eastern Red Tail. I could be wrong, since she had just showered and couldn't do a thing with her feathers.

I thought at the time that this was a tame bird, so I made a fist and extended it as a perch to about two feet from the bird (yeah, dumb, I know.) Bird responded by making feed me gestures with head and beak (my interpretation, might have meant, "One inch closer and I eat your fingers, one by one.")

Some irritated crows arrived and the hawk flew to a tree branch, and then off. I believe this hawk (falcon?) has been in the neighborhood for around two weeks.

If you have lost a bird, e-mail me: [e-mail]
The pictures are nice and clear, except for the ones where he/she is flying right at my head. Those are a bit blurry.

Regards,

Stu

p.s. Since posting, I loaded the pix on my PC and the bird clearly has a metal ring around each foot (ankle?)

[Modoc]

post the pics so we can see.

[Wolf]

There were a lot more pictures but a couple of these show its feet. Its most definitely a First year Red tail.

It is not a lost falconry bird. Even if it was it has No bands, or Anklets which means it might of been released. Considering how trapping season just started I
do not think they could of made a hawk that tame and re-released in such a short period of time.

You were just lucky enough to get some great shots of a some fairly sweet tempered young hawks

I bet since you said on your email there were two of them that they are brothers or sisters learning how to hunt and looking for food.

[chrismt89]

awsome pics!! lucky you got to see that i would love to see something like that!!

[Bob Dale]

Another possibility is that this bird could be on his passage from the far north where they have very little, if any, contact with people, thus no fear.