Hawks and a Bald Eagle: May raptor photography practice in southeastern Pennsylvania - part 2
Here is the post that I was saving for "Grand Finale" of my May photography posts. I'm pretty sure these are the most charismatic birds from the month, and there were some interesting events around the observations, too. This post will cover May photographs of the Red-tailed Hawk, a juvenile Bald Eagle, and a Red-shouldered Hawk.
Collage from Google Photos: Two Red-tailed Hawks, a Juvenile Bald Eagle, and a Red-shouldered Hawk
In total, during May, I submitted 2 Bald Eagle observations, a Red-shouldered Hawk observation, and 9 Red-tailed Hawk observations to iNaturalist.
In addition to just observing the animals, I also had the opportunity to see a couple "mobbing" events where crows and blue jays were harassing the Red-tailed Hawks, and even a possible mating event / breeding activity.
For links to previous wildlife photography posts this spring, please see the end of this post.
Observation Details
| Common Name | Count (all time) | Count (May) | First Sighting | Last Sighting | May Observations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bald Eagle | 4 | 2 | 2026-03-26 | 2026-05-16 | 2026-05-10 |
| 2026-05-16 | |||||
| Red-shouldered Hawk | 1 | 1 | 2026-05-30 | 2026-05-30 | 2026-05-30 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 26 | 9 | 2026-03-19 | 2026-06-06 | 2026-05-01 |
| 2026-05-02 | |||||
| 2026-05-03 | |||||
| 2026-05-07 | |||||
| 2026-05-10 | |||||
| 2026-05-12 | |||||
| 2026-05-22 | |||||
| 2026-05-29 | |||||
| 2026-05-31 | |||||
Red-tailed Hawks - Meet Fred and Ethel (or Frosty and Toasty)
By this time, I have firmly established that the Red-tailed Hawks and Turkey Vultures are the two most common raptors in my area (at least during spring months). But common does not necessarily mean boring. The Red-tailed Hawks managed to provide some special entertainment during May.
As a year-round resident, the Red-tailed hawk covers most of the continental United States and Mexico. During the breeding season, it also spreads out to cover large parts of Canada and Alaska. And, outside of the breeding season it moves into Central America. I'm fairly confident that at least two Red-tailed hawks that I saw during May are a permanent breeding/nesting pair.
My wife named them Fred and Ethel, but Claude and I chose the names Frosty and Toasty - because we can't tell the sex of a Red-tailed Hawk by looking at it. Unfortunately, the names Frosty and Toasty were chosen based on the head colorings in a particular photo - and I later noticed that the shading changes from photo to photo, so neither set of names actually lets us identify an individual bird.
The Red-tailed hawk photos below are divided into 3 sections: (i.) A harassment (mobbing) event where an American Crow drew my attention to a hawk in a tree, and the hawk was later joined by another; (ii.) Bird in flight photos; and (iii.) other treetop photos - including a short burst that captured some possible mating activity.
Table 1: A pair of Red-tailed Hawks getting harassed by a crow
I mentioned this crow-on-hawk bullying already, when I wrote about the crow, but I held back my favorite photos from the day.
I saw the crow bobbing up and down around the tree, and based on my April observations, I knew this meant that there was probably a hawk in the tree and settled in for a bunch of shots. The hawks stayed around for a while after the crow left, so I got tons of photos, including two of Frosty lifting into flight (Toasty has the darker head.)
Unfortunately, Toasty managed to leave when I had lowered the camera to give my arms a rest, so I didn't get a launch photo of the second bird.
| May 2 — Hawk being harassed by an American Crow | May 2 - Quickly changed to two hawks being harassed |
| ƒ/5 · 1/1250s · 108mm (25× · 601mm eq) · ISO220 | ƒ/7.1 · 1/500s · 395mm (92× · 2200mm eq) · ISO640 |
 |  |
| May 2 — Do they look annoyed? | May 2 |
| ƒ/8 · 1/500s · 539mm (125× · 3000mm eq) · ISO800 | ƒ/8 · 1/500s · 539mm (125× · 3000mm eq) · ISO800 |
 |  |
| May 2 | |
| ƒ/8 · 1/500s · 539mm (125× · 3000mm eq) · ISO800 | |
 |
Table 2: Red-tailed Hawks in flight
I assume that these photos are all individual captures of either Frosty or Toasty, but I have no way of really knowing that. It could be one bird four times, four birds one time, or anywhere in between. Bird in flight photos are very difficult with the Nikon P1000 camera that I'm using, which is why they're all zoomed out pretty far - unfortunately. As the leaves on trees filled in, I've also noticed that the reduced visibility seems to be making bird in flight photos even more difficult.
| May 1 — cropped | May 12 — cropped |
| ƒ/5 · 1/1250s · 89.9mm (21× · 500mm eq) · ISO160 | ƒ/5 · 1/1000s · 108mm (25× · 601mm eq) · ISO800 |
 |  |
| May 29 — cropped | May 29 — cropped |
| ƒ/6.3 · 1/2500s · 89.9mm (21× · 500mm eq) · ISO1400 | ƒ/6.3 · 1/2500s · 89.9mm (21× · 500mm eq) · ISO1100 |
 |  |
Table 3: Red-tailed Hawks in a treetop showcase
When that crow showed me where to find the hawks in a tree, I thought I had a cheat-code that would make future hawk photos easy. It turned out, however, that the cheat-code expired on May 10. After that, I didn't see the hawks in that tree again until yesterday.
In the first photo from May 3, the "weather vane" pose caught my attention at the time, but I didn't think much about it until I was putting together today's post. Now, based on the apparent mating activity that we see in the May 10 photos, I'm thinking that the bird in the May 3 photos was probably a female. Based on the head coloring, I think that was Frosty, but I'm not at all confident of that. If so, that means that Frosty is Ethel and Toasty is Fred. ;-) There are a lot of "if"s in that chain of reasoning, however.
May 7 is the only time that I've seen a hawk sort-of nestled into the branches like that, and then on May 10, we see one perched at the top of the tree while the second came in for a quick visit. It flew off again very quickly - in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately, it all happened so fast that I didn't have time to adjust exposure or zoom.
Finally, May closed with another mobbing event. This time it was in a different tree, and the hawk was being harassed by a Blue Jay.
| May 3 — looking like a weather vane | May 3 |
| ƒ/8 · 1/1000s · 539mm (125× · 3000mm eq) · ISO800 | ƒ/8 · 1/1000s · 539mm (125× · 3000mm eq) · ISO560 |
 |  |
| May 7 | May 7 |
| ƒ/8 · 1/500s · 539mm (125× · 3000mm eq) · ISO320 | ƒ/8 · 1/500s · 539mm (125× · 3000mm eq) · ISO320 |
 |  |
| May 10 — a possible mating event | May 10 |
| ƒ/5.6 · 1/500s · 144mm (33× · 801mm eq) · ISO360 | ƒ/5.6 · 1/500s · 144mm (33× · 801mm eq) · ISO360 |
 |  |
| May 10 | May 31 — Red-tailed Hawk being harassed by a Blue Jay |
| ƒ/5.6 · 1/500s · 144mm (33× · 801mm eq) · ISO360 | ƒ/7.1 · 1/2500s · 167mm (39× · 929mm eq) · ISO1250 |
 |  |
| May 31 — had enough | |
| ƒ/7.1 · 1/2500s · 167mm (39× · 929mm eq) · ISO1250 | |
 |
Bald Eagle
Back from near-extirpation in the state of Pennsylvania, I think these Bald Eagle photos are my favorites from the month. This is for two reasons. First, it still amazes me that we can now take Bald Eagle photos from our own yards here; and second because the quality is not bad and they're at decently long zoom distances.
Table 4: Juvenile Bald Eagle in Flight
| May 16 — Cropped and sharpened | May 16 |
| ƒ/5.6 · 1/2000s · 216mm (50× · 1202mm eq) · ISO800 | ƒ/7.1 · 1/2000s · 395mm (92× · 2200mm eq) · ISO800 |
 |  |
| May 16 — Here's what it looks like horizontally | May 16 |
| ƒ/7.1 · 1/2000s · 395mm (92× · 2200mm eq) · ISO800 | ƒ/7.1 · 1/2000s · 395mm (92× · 2200mm eq) · ISO800 |
 |  |
Red-shouldered Hawk
Finally, the Red-shouldered Hawk put in an appearance right at the end of the month. My wife and I were in the back yard when it perched on that broken branch in the woods behind our yard. Unfortunately, I was still working on dialing-in the settings when it left again, so I didn't get the exposure quite right. Still, this was a first time encountering the species, so I was happy that I got these photos.
These birds live year-round in the southeastern United States and they migrate into the mid-Atlantic and northeastern states during the spring and summer. They also winter in Mexico; and according to the range map they have a year-round presence in a very thin band along the west coast of the United States and Mexico. According to Brave Search, the eastern and western populations have been separated since the time of the last ice age due to the lack of suitable habitat in the west-central US.
Table 5: Red-shouldered Hawk
| May 30 | May 30 |
| ƒ/6.3 · 1/80s · 359mm (83× · 1998mm eq) · ISO640 | ƒ/6.3 · 1/80s · 359mm (83× · 1998mm eq) · ISO800 |
 |  |
| May 30 | May 30 |
| ƒ/6.3 · 1/80s · 306mm (71× · 1703mm eq) · ISO720 | ƒ/6.3 · 1/80s · 306mm (71× · 1703mm eq) · ISO640 |
 |  |
Wrap-up
Thank you for your attention to this post. I hope you enjoyed reviewing the May hawk and eagle photos as much as I enjoyed taking them. With the month of June nearly over now, I can definitely say that May was the busiest month of the spring. I do have some interesting new observations for June, though, so stay tuned.
Appendix
Here are my previous wildlife photography posts:
May's photographs
- Hawks and a Bald Eagle: May raptor photography practice in southeastern Pennsylvania - part 2
- Vultures and Kites: May raptor photography practice in southeastern Pennsylvania - part 1
- Wildlife photographs in southeastern Pennsylvania: Small animals with multi-month sightings in May - part 2
- Wildlife photographs in southeastern Pennsylvania: Small animals with multi-month sightings in May - part 1
- Backyard wildlife photography in southeastern Pennsylvania: First encounters during May - post 2
- Backyard wildlife photography in southeastern Pennsylvania: Something Old - Something New
- Photography meets citizen science: May's wildlife in south-eastern Pennsylvania
April's photographs
- [Citizen Science] April's Raptors in South-Eastern Pennsylvania
- Photography meets citizen science: April's wildlife in south-eastern Pennsylvania
- Learning photography with wildlife in south-eastern Pennsylvania: First encounters in the month of April
- Learning photography with wildlife in south-eastern Pennsylvania: First encounters in the month of April - part 2
- April wildlife observations in south-eastern Pennsylvania: repeated encounters with small animals
March's photographs
- Backyard Photography in Chester County, Pennsylvania during March 2026: Warm-up Shots
- [Citizen Science] Observations of Small Birds and Animals in South-eastern Pennsylvania from March of 2026
- [Citizen Science] The Raptors of March in South-Eastern Pennsylvania
Thank you for your attention!
All photos above were taken by me with a Nikon P1000 camera. I'm sharing them under the CC BY 4.0 license (share & adapt freely with attribution to the original source).