This was a very surprising "encounter" and I had not prepared myself for this at all !
Problem was that I entered a trail "as usual" and did not expect to see sharp-shinned hawks there: camera setting not quite as they should have been and the results speak for themselves --- far away, could not get any closer, through the branches, almost backlit ... blah, blah, blah ...
The calls were very loud and both birds were flying through branches, perched for a few seconds, "bred", then off to another tree ... this went on for quite a while.
Amazing!
Anyway, the pictures are here:
Sharp-shinned Hawk - couple breeding. - a set on Flickr
I decided to take you to the Flickr site because: too many photos in one showing and the quality simply isn't there.
However, I managed to at least have "souvenir" shots. (Call it a "beginner's documentary" if you'd like
)
Cheers!
JP