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| Red-Tailed Hawks, Golden Gate Park |
I've been noticing some unusual leaves on the sidewalk during my morning walks lately, and today I decided to try to find out what they are. The leaves are striking because they look a bit like coot feet! (I'm pretty sure I have a picture of coot feet somewhere in my files, but I can't find it, hence the link to Audubon.) UPDATE (12/8/24): Added coot photo, showing its feet, below.
I had little hope of making an ID of the coot-foot tree since there are no flowers at this time, but I was pleasantly surprised to get a 94% match on the leaves alone, using PlantNet. The tree is actually called Catalina ironwood (Lyonothamnus floribundus), a California native endemic to the Channel Islands and liberally planted along the streets of San Francisco.
On a bike ride after my walk I checked the Murphy Windmill for red-tailed hawks, but drew a blank. A little farther along, though, I noticed two red-tails on the same tree where I recently photographed a red-tail devouring its prey.
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| Coot-Foot Tree |
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| Coot-Foot Leaf |
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| Coot Showing Its Feet |
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Coot-Foot Flowers
(7/12/2024) |
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| Emerging Sunflower, Golden Gate Park |
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| The two hawks were busy preening and didn't seem bothered at all by my presence. |
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| One of the hawks managed to pull out one of its own feathers. |
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| The feather floated down to me, coming so close that I only had to take two steps to catch it. |
Here's a somewhat shaky hand-held video clip of the two red-tails. I forgot that the camera was still set on slo-mo, so the shakiness isn't as annoying as it might have been. The hawk on the right was opening its beak in a way that looked like it was calling out, but in fact it wasn't making a sound.
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