On an uneventful Tuesday afternoon I was driving Shore Rd. in Waterford on a typical feature hunt, looking for a photo for the next day's paper, when, shortly after passing the Seaside property I spotted a bird by the side of the road that quickly took-off as my car neared.

I immediately noticed striking plumage that told me this was not an everyday crow or gull and therefore at least of somewhat greater interest to me in my search. As I passed the spot I noted the small gray remnants of a squirrel that by it's rather flat aspect certainly implied it was the victim of a passing vehicle and not of the raptor I had seen.

I stopped in a nearby driveway and trained my camera with a 300mm lens on the roadkill and waited for the raptor to return, which it did only a few minutes later. At this point it was clear to me that I was quite a bit too far away to get a good photo. I snapped off a few frames as the bird, which I would later learn to be a red shouldered hawk, picked at its lunch until another passing vehicle scared it off again.

I used this as an opportunity to re-position my car several yards closer to the roadkill (but hopefully not close enough to keep the hawk from returning) and began to search the sky and trees for my subject. I found the hawk nestled into a nearby tree, watching me I presume, and after another few minutes it returned to its meal.

<hardreturn>I barely had time to get focused when another vehicle turned onto Shore Rd. and I got my payoff frames as the hawk took off, this time attempting to take the squirrel along but dropping it before it cleared the snow bank.<br class="hardreturn" />

<hardreturn>Again, I waited, hoping the hawk would return to the roadkill, but eventually I decided I had an image I was more than happy with and opted to return to the office to file my photos. An e-mail to Elissa Bass at the Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center apprised me as to the species of hawk and to the difficulties faced by raptors this winter which added more gravity to my images.<br class="hardreturn" /><hardreturn>I do not know if the hawk was too weak to carry the squirrel away, or if a squirrel is just inherently too heavy a cargo for the raptor. I am glad, for the sake of the local raptor population, that the snows are melting and they should start to have better hunting as spring moves in.<br class="hardreturn" />