Memorable Large Birds
It's taken me a while to get around to posting this, but on Memorial Day (May 29), I took it into my head to drive up to the Cablevision office at the end of Sunset Ave., because there's an Osprey nest at the top of the tower there that is closer to the ground than the one in Palaia Park. And, I was rewarded with this shot as an adult left the nest:
But the bird flew off towards the ocean so I reckoned it was a dead loss hanging around there any longer. So I drove over to the library hoping that perhaps there I could get a close-up of a turkey vulture. There's been a lot of them around lately. But no such luck that day. However, I did spot this rather large crow who obliged me by taking wing as I was photographing it:
From there, I went over to the church and was very pleased to discover that a red-tailed hawk was perched on the spire:
What was fascinating was to see the behavior of the other birds in the vicinity. The blue jays in particular were incensed and kept making bombing runs at the hawk:
Generally speaking, the hawk was unimpressed with the antics of the blue jays. The jays were clearly stretching their ability to just fly up that high because they could only stay for a few moments making two or three passes at the hawk before returning to a nearby tree for rest, albeit noisy rest.
Meanwhile, this robin was equally fascinated by the hawk, but all it did the whole time I was there was perch alertly on this branch staring at the hawk:
At one point, a blue jay chose the same tree to take a break:
Eventually, the hawk decided it was time to move on. It turned around and flew away from me heading towards the ocean, although, unlike the osprey, I doubt that was actually its destination:
But the bird flew off towards the ocean so I reckoned it was a dead loss hanging around there any longer. So I drove over to the library hoping that perhaps there I could get a close-up of a turkey vulture. There's been a lot of them around lately. But no such luck that day. However, I did spot this rather large crow who obliged me by taking wing as I was photographing it:
From there, I went over to the church and was very pleased to discover that a red-tailed hawk was perched on the spire:
What was fascinating was to see the behavior of the other birds in the vicinity. The blue jays in particular were incensed and kept making bombing runs at the hawk:
Generally speaking, the hawk was unimpressed with the antics of the blue jays. The jays were clearly stretching their ability to just fly up that high because they could only stay for a few moments making two or three passes at the hawk before returning to a nearby tree for rest, albeit noisy rest.
Meanwhile, this robin was equally fascinated by the hawk, but all it did the whole time I was there was perch alertly on this branch staring at the hawk:
At one point, a blue jay chose the same tree to take a break:
Eventually, the hawk decided it was time to move on. It turned around and flew away from me heading towards the ocean, although, unlike the osprey, I doubt that was actually its destination: