2020 04-13 Colusa County Swainson's Hawks
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After reading a post on the Central Valley Birds listserv this morning, Sue and I went to Poundstone Road, south of Grimes (and north of Poundstone Ranch). Here we found a very large plot of land covered by alfalfa and surrounded by trees and with an orchard to the east. There were no hawks viewed from Poundstone to the south or north of this hot spot.
There were at least 100 hawks. The species composition was mostly Swainson’s hawks with some turkey vultures and a couple of red-tailed hawks. Hawks were on the ground in the alfalfa (some quite close to white egrets and great blue herons), some perched on adjacent trees and farm equipment, with most of them in the air. A few crows and ravens were in mix on the far south end of the territory.
The hawks soared, some extremely high. Others flew at ground level. There were a lot of chirp-calls, and frequent aerial interactions mostly by pairs of Swainson’s hawks.
We parked on a dirt lot, got out and waited for raptors to fly overhead. One group would meander over our location then drift onward, out of photographic range. Soaring columns of hawks would appear here and there in the distance, and some of these columns would drift to us.
It was quite a magical experience.
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Read MoreAfter reading a post on the Central Valley Birds listserv this morning, Sue and I went to Poundstone Road, south of Grimes (and north of Poundstone Ranch). Here we found a very large plot of land covered by alfalfa and surrounded by trees and with an orchard to the east. There were no hawks viewed from Poundstone to the south or north of this hot spot.
There were at least 100 hawks. The species composition was mostly Swainson’s hawks with some turkey vultures and a couple of red-tailed hawks. Hawks were on the ground in the alfalfa (some quite close to white egrets and great blue herons), some perched on adjacent trees and farm equipment, with most of them in the air. A few crows and ravens were in mix on the far south end of the territory.
The hawks soared, some extremely high. Others flew at ground level. There were a lot of chirp-calls, and frequent aerial interactions mostly by pairs of Swainson’s hawks.
We parked on a dirt lot, got out and waited for raptors to fly overhead. One group would meander over our location then drift onward, out of photographic range. Soaring columns of hawks would appear here and there in the distance, and some of these columns would drift to us.
It was quite a magical experience.
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Red-tailed hawk
Buteo jamaicensis in flight nictitating membrane 2020 04-13 Colusa County-e-020
Buteojamaicensisflightnictitatingmembrane2020ColusaCounty020
