Photographs and videos are copyrighted by Larry P. Ammann Equipment: Pentax K5, DA*300, 1.7AFA All images and videos have been cropped for composition and down-sized for web viewing. Return to Bird Galleries Return to first diary page Return to previous diary page Go to next diary page Diary of a Young Hawk June 13, 2011 For this young hawk, learning to fly is an instinctive, incremental process. There is no teaching or pushing by Mom or Dad, no single leap from the edge of the nest into sustained flight. Junior makes a wing-assisted leap to a higher branch. This is the first time he has left the nest! [watch video here] He wants to try for higher branches, but he's nervous and unsure. Eventually, he makes it. [watch video here] Now he feels more confident, leaping/flapping back up to those branches. [watch video here] Satisfied for now, he is back in the nest. [watch video here] June 14, 2011 He has half-jumped, half-flapped his way out to some higher branches, but he's unsure how to get back down. Then he lets instinct take over and makes his first flight! Although he's not soaring gracefully over the trees, this short flight makes him feel like a hawk. [watch video here] Now he confidently flies to other branches, eventually making his way to a lookout perch. From there he announces to the world his arrival as a fully fledged Red-Shouldered Hawk! [watch video here] Go to next diary page