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Red-tailed Hawk
Buteo jamaicensis
38.8055, -123.017
Field Notes
Description:
This is "Maury, Jr." (that's what I call him -- don't ask me why cuz I dunno... lol!). I have been taking photos of him since he was a fledgling -- calling for his mama from a nearby oak tree. I have photos of Maury in his chick state, juvenile state, with his mate "Gladys" (again, don't ask...) and even video of him speaking "on command"! Needless to say, he is quite used to me (whom I'm sure he thinks of as "the crazy human who lives on the hill nearby") and my waving and calling to him just about every day. On the day I took this photo, however, he had been observing me from a valley oak across the field when he flew around the corner of the hill and, within a few minutes, came back and lit in the acorn woodpeckers' "granary tree" barely 15 ft. in front of me WITH a "trophy"! It was a decapitated western rattlesnake (as you can see) which he proceeded to actually HOLD UP as though showing it off to me! I got several photos like those above of this same incident. After about 10 minutes, he flew back to the valley oak where I got the last photo of him (still with his "prize")!
Habitat:
Oak woodlands, dry hills and chaparral.
Notes:
Maury comes by pretty nearly on a daily basis and calls out when he's over my house. I run outside and wave and call to him, he makes a couple of turns over my head and then he goes off, seemingly satisfied that he's seen me, to hunt over the hill to the south...
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