THE first shot with my SX20 at about 50 feet, and my first raptor! This Cooper's juvenile was hunting rabbits up by the ranch. When he spotted one but couldn't catch him from the air, he tried running on the ground after it. Something this majestic shouldn't look so helpless.

Image used by Cornell University in this article www.allaboutbirds.org/im-seeing-fewer-birds-in-my-yard-is....

Tags:   Cooper's Hawk Walnut Creek Open Space DailyNature-TNC13 Canon SX40 or SX50 DailyNature-TNC14 North America NA Ethan Winning E. A. Winning

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This Cooper's was sitting in an old oak surveying, and posed just beautifully.

Tags:   Cooper's Hawk Walnut Creek Open Space DailyNature-TNC13 Canon SX40 or SX50 DailyNature-TNC14 North America NA Ethan Winning E. A. Winning

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Removed in error. Uploaded again 3/2021

We specifically went to see if the Red-shouldered Hawk would be out when we were able to get away at noon.
There's a resident pair at the Reserve, but we weren't sure whether they'd be hunting so late in the day. Well, this one was. We watched for at least a half hour while he flew from one oak tree to another. (The first 174 shots have twigs all over the place.) Then he chose the top dead branch of an old oak and kept looking around.

Then the surprise. The Tropical Kingbird came, perched on an adjacent tree, and then started dive-bombing the hawk. This shot was just as the hawk was ducking and looking left at the kingbird that was wheeling around for another shot. That kingbird did not want that hawk anywhere near its territory. Perhaps this is how the kingbird came to lose its tail feathers last March though I thought the Cooper's would be more likely suspects.

I focused on the hawk and put him in the upper left of the frame thinking he would take off to the right. Noooo. He took off to the left, and I missed him as he took off for somewhere a mile or so to the west.

A seemingly small bird at 100 feet, when he took off he was majestic and much larger with his 40 inch wingspan.

Tags:   Canon SX50 DailyNature-TNC13 DailyNature-TNC14 Red-shouldered Hawk Ethan Winning Northern California Walnut Creek Open Space Heather Farm Raptors COTH

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A resident of a lake about a mile from home, this is the male of a breeding pair. He was intent on field mouse when I shot this, and I was able to get within 100 feet of him. Though I have found them in more northern California, all that I have posted are from the two breeding pairs that live close by.

Tags:   Red-shouldered Hawk Walnut Creek Open Space Canon SX50 DailyNature-TNC13 DailyNature-TNC14 North America Heather Farms Wildl

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I just hope this isn't Sydney! Went out to get the mail. Crows were agitated as only a gang of crows can be. Followed them and there was a besieged Red-tail Hawk with a Gray squirrel in his talons that had taken refuge on top of a neighbor's house. (Well, this hawk was practicing "hiding in plain sight," and finding out that it was a very bad idea.) Unfortunately for the squirrel and me, its tail twitched. Five minutes and 25 shots later, the squirrel was dead.

The hawk really didn't know what to do. Six crows were dive-bombing him, and after about another five minutes, he made a break for it. He ended up in the tallest branches of a redwood, but the crows didn't give up. He was so entrenched that the crows could get to the hawk. They parted, and I watched for another couple of minutes. The hawk may still be there.

This is the first time that I actually saw a kill in "my" territory. Well, a kill by a bird. (I have seen King snakes and a Western Diamondback, the former taking on a Garter snake flic.kr/p/JAD2BE and the latter, a California Ground Squirrel - after the fact flic.kr/p/2jKbpVq. Nature is not always pleasant, but I keep reminding me that wildlife has to eat, and outside of a few close primates, I don't know of any other animal that kills "for sport.") I'm just a softie.


P.S. It wasn't Sydney. Probably just a minor heir to the throne. I went out at Bernie's suggestion to see if he's come around for a cashew. Well, he met me at the door, chattered a bit, then too the nut and went to eat it in the tangelo tree. That's my Sydney.

Tags:   Red-tailed Hawk

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