I found a redtail hawk today.

Or perhaps she found me, or maybe a bit of both.

It was a really nice day today, very sunny and somewhat warmer than it's been recently.
I ventured out to do some food shopping, check my post office box, and take some photos of the local wildlife.

Regarding the latter, I walked through the woods near Carnegie Lake and found some deer lying ontop of the snow in the woods, near the edge of a property.
Before that I was taking photos of gulls on the lake ice and while doing that, a juvenile black mink walked by within 2 feet of me.
It happened so quickly, that I didn't get time to switch lenses and photograph him. Searching for where he went came up totally empty. Perhaps there was a den nearby, that I never found.

As I walked more in the woods, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a large bird fly.
There were a lot of trees in the way, so I'm still not 100% sure what it was.
However, as I walked another 50 yards or so, I saw an adult female redtail hawk perched on a fairly low branch, perhaps 12 feet up. She was intently watching me. I surmised, that perhaps she was the large bird I saw fly earlier, and that she circled around to come back behind me. I did notice a fairly large nest near the water's edge shortly after she flew.
So, I deduced, that it might be her nest, perhaps having eggs in it.

Either way, I took a lot of good photos of her. Eventually she flew off, higher up, not all that far away. As I crunched my way through the snow,
to get closer to her for more shots and get the sun behind me. She took off again and flew even higher up and on the other side of a canal.

I knew what she was doing. She was trying to lure me away from her nest. Bright bird ! It worked.

On my way back to my car later, I met some fishermen and talked with a couple of them. One young guy and an older one.
The older one is a professor at a university, a fellow biologist (different field) and he also does some work for a private research firm.
He's thinking of retiring early. I told him, that's what I did and I love it. We also talked photography.
I showed him some of my photos that he loved and said that he often sees different birds while fishing that he would love to photograph. He said he has an old Canon Rebel, but wants to upgrade.
So, I gave him a business card, and told him that if he needed advice on cameras & lenses to contact me.

All in all it was a fun day. I hope your Wednesday was good too.