River Raptors, Part 1 of 3

The three hawks I encountered along the Mission Reach a week and a half ago were by far the highlight of the day. This majestic Red-shouldered Hawk, perched on top of a light pole high above the trail, greeted me with its unmistakeable, piercing "Ke-yeeeear" cry as I crossed the pedestrian bridge at the San Pedro Creek confluence:

This set of photographs was taken a short distance upstream from the confluence with San Pedro Creek along the San Antonio River Mission Reach on Wednesday, December 4, 2013.