We learned a lesson in birding over the weekend: prepare to be disappointed if you leave the door with a goal in mind! Two new birds seemed like a conservative target, especially with a long stretch of Saturday ahead of us. We definitely enjoyed our outing, but it ended up being just the usual suspects in our backyard at Raptor Ridge–all on our identified list. Below are some pictures for everyone to enjoy.
Next weekend, we’re preparing to spread our wings a little bit and see what the San Elijo Lagoon has to offer.
Red-tailed hawk?
Same tree, same red-tailed hawk Blair captured before (we think).
Our Coyote friend was out again after a late night.
Perhaps he’d eaten all the rare birds.
Broad-Winged Hawk?
Seems like this little burrow might be worth coming back to at night–we had fun imagining an elf owl here.
Red-tailed hawk?
Debate continues…Northern Harrier (Peter) red shouldered hawk (everyone else)?
Also seen and photographed this day: Black Phoebe, House Finch, Yellow Rumped Warblers, 3-4 other hawks.
-Peter (Blair wants you to know she wasn’t too disappointed)
The Big Year 2021 
I find it sooooo hard to tell hawks apart because there are so many variants and juveniles can look so different from the adults. I thought the hawk we saw on the Cozy Dell trail might be a juvi Broad-winged, but the more I looked at the “color corrected” image and other images of different red-tailed hawks I finally found a juvi red-tail image that pretty much duplicated what we had.
Now, I struggle the same way with your hawk Blair. The broad-winged images look encouraging. The underside of the Eastern juvenile red-shouldered has some similarities too… but then why would an eastern one be here? any more than the broad- winged which is supposed to be rare? DRCubes, help! – Dean
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