2018 12-08 Yolo County
We made a brief pass up and down the Yolo burrowing owl road on our way northwest to Plainfield Elementary School and its hawks. A few wisps of high clouds interrupted an otherwise blue, sunny sky. Air temperatures were in the upper 50’s…it was cool. The local agricultural trend of plowing over the alfalfa fields and preparing them for one kind of crop or another had worked over another big field on the south side of the street. Only a single field (southwest corner) remains full of alfalfa and rich with raptors. The birds were seen in abundance on the irrigation pipes/equipment, on the ground, perched on telephone poles and in the trees that make up the orchard to the west. The bright sun limited photography in many places that featured backlighting.
Red-tailed hawks, northern harriers, and ferruginous hawks were present.
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Red-tailed hawk among the bare branches of a winter orchard scene.
Buteo jamaicensis in bare orchard tree 2018 12-08 Plainfield Elem--001
Red-tailed hawk
Buteo jamaicensis 2018 12-08 Plainfield Elem-g-012
Red-tailed hawk with its nictitating membrane down.
Buteo jamaicensis nictitating membrane 2018 12-08 Plainfield Elem-g-054
Red-tailed hawk with blood on its beak and the nictitating membrane on its eye is partially extended.
Buteo jamaicensis partial nictitating membrane 2018 12-08 Plainfield Elem-g-051
Buteojamaicensispartialnictitatingmembrane2018PlainfieldElem051
Red-tailed hawk
Buteo jamaicensis 2018 12-08 Plainfield Elem-g-092
Two red-tailed hawks on an irrigation mechanism
Buteo jamaicensis TWO on irrigation equipment 2018 12-08 Plainfield Elem--001
