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Birds > Steve Wolfe  > The Red-Tail Hawks of Kaiser Hospital, Harbor City, California > June 11 --- What a Day It Was!
I arrive as usual on Saturday around 4pm. There isn't any activity among the hawks that would mark it as anything other than a normal late-afternoon. Two of the hawklets (the oldest and the youngest) are on a ledge of the main hospital building looking inside the windows; I don't see Jen but she seems to prefer being by herself. Could her week-long stay with the Wildlife Rehab folks after crashing into the window have somehow changed the dynamics among the siblings? For whatever reason, I rarely if ever see all 3 hawklets together anymore. While looking at the 2 on the ledge, I notice one has what appears from a distance to be...a snake...

(A brief pause in the action for a quick reminder. The South Bay Wildlife Rehab has been following the Kaiser Red-tails from the beginning and has been indispensable in helping them whenever they seem to need human assistance. They are all volunteers and most of the funding comes from their own pockets, so please help with a contribution. Their website is at http://www.sbwr.org and their phone # is (310) 378-9921. Thanks Ann, Jen and all the other wildlife rehabilitators!)
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Steve Wolfe > ...while her brother complains loudly to Mom, who's circling high above watching things.
Steve Wolfe > "Mom, she stole it from me!  It's not FAIR!"
Steve Wolfe > I come to within 10 feet of him and lay my camera on the same railing he's on to get some closeup shots. Poor guy, all he's left with are a few feathers to show his fleeting possession of the pigeon...
Steve Wolfe > June 11 --- What a Day It Was! photo
Steve Wolfe > It looks like he's pleading his case to me...and thus the world.  I'm on his side...
Steve Wolfe > Again looking up at Mom...
Steve Wolfe > Now's a good time to point out a prominent feature of a Red-tail's face. The greenish-yellow section at the base of the beak is called a "cere". Charles Preston writes, "its color may play a significant role in signaling age and physical condition in [diurnal raptors]. Typically, the cere is light green in young Red-tailed Hawks but changes to bright yellow with age."
Steve Wolfe > Again, Charles Preston --- "The large eyes of a raptor are positioned on the front of the face, affording binocular vision and excellent depth perception.  If our eyes were as large in proportion to our bodies as the eyes of a Red-tailed Hawk, they would be about the size of tennis balls."  Now THAT puts things in perspective...
Steve Wolfe > Meanwhile, while I've been concentrating on the brother, Sis has been busy chowing down ---
...while her brother complains loudly to Mom, who's circling high above watching things.
 > ...while her brother complains loudly to Mom, who's circling high above watching things.
...while her brother complains loudly to Mom, who's circling high above watching things.
Camera: Panasonic (Dmc-fz20) |
More details: exif |
Original size: 846px x 724px |
Current: 350px x 300px |
Other sizes: Small • M • L |
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Keywords: june
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