Short URL:
Steve Wolfe  > The Red-Tail Hawks of Kaiser Hospital, Harbor City, California > Meet the Parents...and Pre-Incubation
This is an onrunning photo album of a Red-Tail Hawk couple residing at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Harbor City, California. I've taken the liberty of naming them Willie and Mina after Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm (aka "Willie") from the early 20th century. (Hey, if Central Park has Lola and Pale Male, why not?) It's an honor to have these hawks make the Kaiser campus their home and heartwarming to see the support and interest in them by so many of the hospital employees.

The camera I use is a Panasonic Lumix FZ20 with a 12x optical zoom (432mm) and OIS (Optical Image Stabilization). Many of the following pics, especially the ones of the babies, were taken in full digital zoom with a Canon TL-55 1.4x teleconverter added.

Red-Tail Hawk Vital Stats:

Weight: 2-4 lbs.
Length: 22"
Wing Span: 56 inches
Sexual Maturity: 3 years
Mating Season: Spring
Incubation: 28-32 days
No. of Eggs: 1-3
Birth Interval: year
Lifespan: 10-21 years
Typical diet: small rodents, snakes

---from Desert USA
website
gallery pages:  1  
< 1 of 7 >
Mina (on left) and Willie at their nest. Their next meal is on the right.
Mina launching from the nest. I still have a hard time telling the two apart, but the most telling difference is, as with most raptors the female is nearly 1/3 larger than the male. This was also taken during the egg incubation period, when the female maintains the nest pretty much entirely by herself.
This photo of Mina was taken from the inside of the building the nest is on. It's an open stairwell so it's really hard to get a good look at things. The glass hasn't been cleaned for awhile and Karen Munoz, one of the hospital staff, told the window washers to stay away from these windows so she doesn't get spooked and abandon both nest and babies. She DOES sometimes get agitated by her reflection; she probably thinks it's another hawk.
This was also taken during the incubation period in March. I believe that's MIna looking down at the eggs, and Willie probably just dropped off some food.
This is a pretty well-constructed nest especially if you consider it was done by beak and talons. Kaiser uses flexible "stakes" to stop birds from roosting on lights and parts of buildings, but the R/Ts built the nest in such a way that the spikes actually seem to help hold the nest in place.
Mina taking off from one of her many perches on the hospital buildings. I've noticed from my vantage point on the roof that she invariably keeps the nest in view whenever she flies off it. Willie does the out-of-sight hunting while Mina makes sure she has a line-of-sight to her babies. An interesting related fact about hawks is that their eyesight is 8 times as powerful as a human's.
Here's the view from my vantage point looking west at the nest. As it's so high up it's hard to get a good angle of it from the ground. The nests are usually located 35 to 75 feet high in the fork of large trees, so this one is unique.
Mina (on left) and Willie at their nest. Their next meal is on the right.
Mina (on left) and Willie at their nest. Their next meal is on the right.
Mina (on left) and Willie at their nest. Their next meal is on the right.
Panasonic DMC-FZ20 |
More details: exif |
Original size: 980x556 |
Current: 800x454 |
Share photo: links, forums, blogs |
Keywords: willie smugmug mina
gallery pages:  1  
< 1 of 7 >

Comments

| hide gallery comments |


Photo Sharing by SmugMug · Login · Contact · Help · Portions © 2013 SmugMug, Inc.
Show FeedsAvailable Feeds
Gallery Photos:
Atom FeedAtom | RSS FeedRSS