Channeling my inner James Taylor today. I drove north. I drove south. I drove south. I drove north. I survived 101, 880, 538, 13, 538, 880, 101, 85, and more 101. It was freeway day. And if you did the speed limit near the bridge you might get to see that great blue heron like I did.
But just before I even got on the first on-ramp, a peregrine falcon flew close overhead as my car pointed towards the Bay. Wow! Further on, a red-tailed hawk was observing traffic from a sign pole, then a Cooper’s hawk. A gray chest and tall, regal posture on another light pole, and there were groupings of soaring raptors three times. That made no sense to me–hawks in flocks? Since when?
Till I saw an email from an old birding friend after I got home.
The funny thing is, I hadn’t heard from her in maybe a year, and before I’d even walked out to my car, unknown to me she somehow had thought of me and sent me a link to an article about broadwing hawks having very recently been discovered in California. Lots of them. They’re an East Coast bird, migrating to the Amazon, with a few that live in western Canada. It describes their behaviors, and yes they do soar together in groups like I saw.
Ninety-nine percent of the ones that had suddenly shown up here were juveniles.
So the youth had voted to come to the San Francisco Bay. Who knows? The air apparents may even “settle on down traveling man” and claim the place for their own.
It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out with the locals.