After thousands of birders, twitchers and shutterbugs from a dozen states have worn out the streets of a little roadside hamlet called Santa Claus Lane, well, he’s not so rare any more. The bird I’m speaking of, a juvenile Gray Hawk (Asturina nitida), put this little burg on the map. Cleve Nash, our contributing photographer extraordinaire had filmed this hawk several times in the last few weeks, but like a true naturalist couldn’t get a shot without a man-made structure in the photo which he detests vehemently. The shot you see here was taken after he flew from a chain-linked post to a rock behind a 6 foot chain-linked fence. Hand-held he focused though one of the small squares in the fence and bingo! This is the first recorded sighting of a gray hawk in California. They are normally in Mexico, sometimes frequent in southwest Texas and New Mexico areas.
Happy trails, Bob