-


The smoke from the Paradise fire up north was pretty bad with perhaps 1 mile or so of the lateral visibility and quite an odor. When I first pulled in there were dozens of hawks circling. The area to the north, which is always been the hotspot and full of alfalfa, is now completely plowed and leveled and ready for some kind of planting. There are no more hawks there on the ground but they still circle above in large numbers.

Hawks on the ground are now found on the south side of the road where there is also a long line of rolling irrigation pipe the kind that has the wheels or rollers about every 30 feet. On my first slow pass down the road there were lots of hawks perched on these rollers. I was able to capture a few images by shooting out my driver’s side window before each hawk took flight (often before I got close enough to click).

My first impression was that the vast majority of these animals were red-tailed hawks, although there were a couple of harriers working above the alfalfa. Several hawks were perched on top of the telephone poles, as they so often are. Also hovering above the alfalfa, and making periodic talons-down free falls, were at least 3 white-tailed kites.

There were very smoky conditions with hazy, brown diffused light. We’ll see how the photos turn out. I do worry about the future of this location as they are now cultivating the hottest spot.


-