“Look deep into Nature, and then you will understand everything better.” – Albert Einstein
In Northern California, raptors are EVERYWHERE! When I have guests visiting I will notice as we are driving that they aren’t catching them, every 100 yards or so. So I begin pointing them out as we are driving. On the lamp post, on the ground, the fence, a rock, perched with their serious looking keen eye for territory and FOOD. Once I point a few out with some frequency they can’t believe it. Everywhere they look, they are like sentinels.
I have a lot of affinity for raptors. I always have, even as a child. The way their head is shaped, to me, is so regal. Perhaps because the are the bird of kings and royalty. Perhaps because our own national bird is a Bald Eagle. I don’t know. While I like birds, generally, I love the falcon, hawk, family in particular. My grandparents, Otis and Ruth, loved them as well. They used to make annual trips to Hawk Mountain in Pennsylvania. A protected sanctuary for these incredible birds. If you are back east, I encourage you to visit. It has quite a story behind it and my grandparents just loved their annual trek there during the migration.
Calif Backyard
In our backyard, we have 10 mature Valley Oak trees that are protected in the state of California. We have an Owl who visits, that lives in the big Valley Oak tree in the undeveloped lot next to us. And we have a falcon. I have not yet identified these northern California raptors specifically, that I see everywhere – but he is smallish looking when just perched. However, when he opens his wings to fly, it is absolutely breathtaking! The wingspan seems at least 6 feet across, or more. When he is close and his wings are spread, his size exponentially expands beyond what you would expect.
We also started out with one ground squirrel. They look similar to the tree squirrels I’m accustom to back east, but these guys don’t like heights. So they live in the ground which gives them a scruffy, rough look. I suspect it is also infinitely cooler. Early on Dave heard a loud thud and looked out in the backyard to see a large winged bird flapping around and a squirrel running at top speed for his hole in the ground. It was our falcon. We learned that often these birds will snatch their pray, fly up high, drop it, in order to stun it, pick it back up and carry it off to have “fresh” meat to eat. This particular squirrel survived the drop! Eventually he disappeared for good and another squirrel moved in, he too disappeared and so it goes. We often will say to them in the backyard (I talk to wild animals, something my grandfather Otis did routinely) “this might not be a good house for you!”
Some time later I found a duckling in my backyard! I have no water or streams near me at all! My yard is fenced. After some thought, I decided that he too had survived the drop and stun from a raptor. I dropped him off at the duck lady’s house in Sacramento who takes care of them for the city.
I’ve seen “our” sentinel around, but yesterday, as I walked through the kitchen, where I have some sliding glass doors to take us out to our backyard, I saw that expansive wingspan lifting off the ground in my yard, and hanging from his talons was a squirrel’s tail. He lifted up over my fence and gathered some height and was gone.
We have a family of squirrels now and well, its a nice small captive area for this falcon to lay in wait. Later on that day, I went out into the yard and he swooped down from my tree, still with the squirrel in his talons. Now I don’t mind if he does what nature does, but I’m not so sure I’m happy with him chowing down in my yard! I expect I will find its head somewhere. Ick. That was just a bit much for me.
Here is a photo that I took of a beautiful, what I believe to be a, broad tailed hawk, a young one, in my backyard in Maryland. I was pretty proud of this photo be sure to click on it to enlarge. I had my new Nikon DSLR camera with a telephoto. I had been trying to catch him from my window for days! He was just beautiful.
California Raptor
This hawk photo on the right is our falcon. I caught him from a distance with my telephoto from an upstairs bedroom window. It is very enlarged on my computer. I’m going to keep trying to get a good shot of him. But you get the idea. He’s hunting.
These are the little vignette’s of life that bring me some small joy in my day. When I was caring for my mother in Maryland, I would often sit on my backyard stoop with a cup of coffee and watch the fox coming home after a night out of carousing around the neighborhood, and the squirrels playing in our trees. This seemingly innocuous activity really sustained me throughout my days of caring for her. People would often ask what I was doing to take care of myself. I don’t know if they could appreciate fully, how this kind of thing would fill me up enough to get through it, but it did and it does.
I’m always struck by how nature can adapt to man’s continuing encroaching on its habitat. I for one, enjoy thoroughly their adaptation and am grateful for it.
We also had a “Pigeon Hawk” at our townhouse in Maryland. I always knew when he was around as the birds from my gazebo bird feeder would literally SCREAM as the darted into a giant, prickly holly bush next to the feeder. The hawk would ceremoniously land and perch right on top of the feeder as he contemplated his next move. The tree was filled with little shaking birds and I swear, the whole bush was shaking. He was beautiful though, just beautiful.