I had a wonderful opportunity to study two red-tailed hawk chicks. They were still chicks but already had a lot of brown feathers and showed the real raptor character. At that age they have never yet killed any prey. They will stay in the nest for several months as innocent little creatures, being fed by mother and father. After the study work I did with the two chicks, it was really tempting to do a close-up scene with the mother and her offspring in the nest. It was interesting to show the expression of wisdom of the mother hawk and the innocent but ambitious expression of the chicks. But the real challenge for me was getting the texture of the feathers. - CB