A few days ago, I was sitting on the back deck looking at the park in our "backyard" when I saw a hawk hunting for his dinner.  I got the camera and the zoom lens and took these photographs of him.

He is in the middle of each of the photograph and in the first one, he is flying.  Still can't see him, let me zoom in

In the photograph where he is flying, he has just caught a mouse or a mole or something for dinner.  You can see the meal fairly well in the second photograph although the zoom accentuates the fact that he is out of focus.....

We are very lucky to have so much wildlife so close to us.  And, yes, I did consider the hawk being close in the photographs above, until yesterday that is when he landed on the railing of the master bedroom deck.

Amazingly, I just happened to be in the bedroom and looked out the window to see him sitting on the railing, apparently hanging out, maybe looking for a tasty morsel.

I don't know if he heard the camera click or he finally realized I was there

but after only a few minutes, he took off.

I couldn't believe my luck at being in the bedroom when he was on the deck railing!  I thought it was a one in a million chance until today, while I was on the phone with my brother, I heard something hit the dining room windows and I spun around to find the hawk AGAIN, only this time he was sitting in our very fancy outdoor furntiture ( aka folding camp chairs).

It is a bit hard to see him because I just used the camera on my phone and it is through the glass.  He sat there for a very short time, seemingly looking at me, and then flew over to the railing once again.

He had a bit of a look around

had a little scratch

Something caught his attention

I was able to open the door and step out on the deck without him flying off, although his attention was on me the whole time

and soon after I stepped out on the deck, he turned around to get a better look at me and then flew off.

Peter has named him Stephen after Stephen Hawking.  I hope he will come back again - and I don't even care if he scratches up the stainless railings!