Chicken Hawks
Twice during my weekend of birding I saw hawks doing kind of funny things and it got me thinking about bird personality. (And to be honest, I took some pictures that I wanted an excuse to post.)
Watching birds requires a certain appreciation of stoicism. For one, if you don't find pleasure in quietly staying still and watching for things that may not appear or may not do much when they do appear for extended periods of time, this hobby might not be for you. But also, the things you are watching are themselves pretty stoic. If someone asks what a bird is doing, you could say, "standing there" and be right about 90% of the time.
So sometimes it feels like if you want to see lively personality, you have to look at things besides the birds. For example, this Fox Squirrel that was going through my camera bag while I was looking at a pelican.
But every once in a while you get a glimpse of the personalities of the birds, too. While I was all set up with my tripod and long lens trying to get the right shot of the pelican and trying to keep the squirrel from stealing my lens brush, the flock of geese eating peacefully nearby started squawking. At first I thought they thought I was feeding the squirrel and were jealous. But then I saw a young Red-tailed Hawk had flown down into the grass with them and was, well, screwing with them.
Those geese are too big for him to seriously consider eating one. But I don't know. Maybe he was like Henery the chicken-hawk going after Foghorn Leghorn in the old Merrie Melodies cartoon. I got a sense, however, that he was just goofing off. He'd flap his wings at them and hop in their direction, sending them squawking and hissing. There were no eggs or babies or anything for him to go after. He was just bugging the geese. Which seems a little like personality.
Then, the next day at Bolsa Chica with my brother, after we were done with our hike and I'd put my camera away, right at the bridge at the entrance, we saw this young Red-tail hanging out on an informational sign. I expected him to leave before I could get my camera out. But he wasn't budging.
Some kids walked by him and he didn't fly off. We kept approaching him, slowly, getting closer and closer, and he didn't move. The picture of Richard taking a picture of him above is not nearly the closest we got. We hung out for maybe 10 minutes within 5 or 10 feet of him.
Watching birds requires a certain appreciation of stoicism. For one, if you don't find pleasure in quietly staying still and watching for things that may not appear or may not do much when they do appear for extended periods of time, this hobby might not be for you. But also, the things you are watching are themselves pretty stoic. If someone asks what a bird is doing, you could say, "standing there" and be right about 90% of the time.
So sometimes it feels like if you want to see lively personality, you have to look at things besides the birds. For example, this Fox Squirrel that was going through my camera bag while I was looking at a pelican.
But every once in a while you get a glimpse of the personalities of the birds, too. While I was all set up with my tripod and long lens trying to get the right shot of the pelican and trying to keep the squirrel from stealing my lens brush, the flock of geese eating peacefully nearby started squawking. At first I thought they thought I was feeding the squirrel and were jealous. But then I saw a young Red-tailed Hawk had flown down into the grass with them and was, well, screwing with them.
Those geese are too big for him to seriously consider eating one. But I don't know. Maybe he was like Henery the chicken-hawk going after Foghorn Leghorn in the old Merrie Melodies cartoon. I got a sense, however, that he was just goofing off. He'd flap his wings at them and hop in their direction, sending them squawking and hissing. There were no eggs or babies or anything for him to go after. He was just bugging the geese. Which seems a little like personality.
Then, the next day at Bolsa Chica with my brother, after we were done with our hike and I'd put my camera away, right at the bridge at the entrance, we saw this young Red-tail hanging out on an informational sign. I expected him to leave before I could get my camera out. But he wasn't budging.
Some kids walked by him and he didn't fly off. We kept approaching him, slowly, getting closer and closer, and he didn't move. The picture of Richard taking a picture of him above is not nearly the closest we got. We hung out for maybe 10 minutes within 5 or 10 feet of him.
Eventually, he flew off to chase some pigeons - but just over to the bridge we were crossing. He perched on the rail of the fence and we stood less than an arm's reach away from him. Several people passed him. If you were ever wondering how to catch a hawk, here's your answer. Reach out and pick it up. When we finally walked by, he followed us and flew just barely over our heads - close enough to make us both flinch and duck - to land on another sign right next to us.
I don't have any idea what he was thinking. Probably just young and too dumb to know to be afraid of people. Like a reckless and inquisitive teenager. And again, his behavior struck me as being a little like personality.
The other lesson was don't put your camera away until you leave the wetlands.
Immature Red-tailed Hawks, shot March 3, 2012 around 1:00 p.m. in Area III of El Dorado Park with the Nikon D5000 and Sigma 150-500mm, and March 4, 2012 at around 12:00 p.m.in Huntington Beach at the entrance to the Bolsa Chica Ecological Preserve on PCH with the Nikon D5000 and 70-200mm. Also a squirrel.
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