Acrobatic afternoon

This week we had two days of 50F afternoon highs and red-tailed hawks enjoyed the thermals. I watched as one began an acrobatic demonstration, then a second joined the first, and eventually a third joined the fun. They moved too quickly to catch all three in a single photo, but two did cooperate. At times they almost collided with each other, but in a split second would stop, hover and turn on a dime. As the day grew warmer they circled higher and higher into the sky, until they were little more than dots in my camera's view finder. The red-tailed hawk on the right may be a female; they are larger than the males. The one of the left may also be a bit higher, making it look smaller. Red-tailed hawk color patterns vary widely and are sometimes confused with other types of hawks we have here, but red-tailed (actually more brownish than red) hawks are by far the most common.

Canon SL2 DSLR, Canon 300mm lens, f/9, 1/1000th second, ISO 200

GIMP