Friday, December 9, 2011

Name That Hawk

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I had a couple of errands to run in the neighborhood "down below" (around Ninth & Irving) and decided to bring my camera along for a quick tour of Strybing Arboretum. As I strolled along a trail in the California Garden I heard a peculiar sound that drew my attention to the Scrub Jay seen above. 

I soon determined that the jay, which stood on one leg with its feathers fluffed out for warmth, had made the sound. I sat down on a park bench and watched the jay. The jay in turn watched me, but also followed the flight of several insects that winged past him. He made the curious sound a couple more times. 

Who was he calling, and what was he saying? It couldn't be a predatory thing because the call gave him away. Yet the call was very quiet. More of a grumble than a full-fledged squawk.

A few Golden-Crowned Sparrows foraged on the ground below, but the jay paid them no heed. Even though I was just a few feet away, I knew the jay wasn't reacting to me. That's when it dawned on me to turn around and look where the jay was looking.



Immediately, I spotted the Red-Tailed Hawk in a tree behind me. I shot the photo above from same spot on the park bench from which I'd shot the photo of the jay.



As I moved in for a closer look at the young hawk, I was struck by the fact that she didn't fly away. And that reminded me of something.... This was the same hawk I'd recently seen and photographed in another post. This was the hawk that had been rescued with a nail in her head!



I hung out with her for quite a while once again in the hope of seeing her pounce on something, and once again she out-waited me. I watched a squirrel come down from a tree and work its way around the area below the hawk, but eventually the squirrel circled back to its starting point and was out of range. The hawk seemed mesmerized for a couple of minutes when a Robin landed on a branch above her, and again when a Hummingbird buzzed in front of her for a closer look. A Brown Creeper worked its way up the trunk of the tree, only to scream and fly away when it reached the limb the hawk was on. But the hawk never left her perch.

I hope to see the hawk many more times as she matures. I feel like she needs a name, though, and I haven't come up with anything that seems just right. What do you think? What would be a good name for this wonderful hawk?

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3 comments:

  1. Tawode! Cherokee word for Hawk. My son's name. He's an observer, too!

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  2. Sadie, Cynthia, or Sarah came to me, perhaps to go with the tagline "Sarah the Survivor" or "Cynthia the Strong" . . . Tagline might help with the great story ~

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  3. If it was a guy I'd suggest Brad (as in, nail)...perhaps Daisy as per your description she is still in a bit of a daze?

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