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Mar 6, 2011 | by Kevin Loughlin
Coopers Hawk
Yesterday morning I finally had the opportunity to do a little bit of birding during my trip to San Diego for the annual Bird Fest. Mike from Nikon Sport Optics picked me up along with Marci from the Rio Grand Valley Bird Fest and Ben from Eagle Optics.
The Cooper’s Hawk pictured above was actually the culmination of our morning. Te bird flew in as we arrived back at the festival parking lot! However, we began our morning along the coast in La Jolla…

Along the coast we were treated to both Common Dolphins and Bottle-nosed Porpoises cruising by as we scanned for distant seabirds.

Brandt’s Cormorant

Looking far off shore we scanned feeding flocks and found both Pomarine and Parasitic Jaegers chasing young gulls and pelicans forcing them to give up their catches. In the closer surf we found a couple of Brandt’s Cormorants, some just coming into their breeding plumage.

Pelagic Cormorant (with white patches) and Double-crested Cormorant (middle)
Pelagic and Double-crested Cormorants were regular fly-bys along with many Brown Pelicans and several species of gulls.
Heerman’s Gull

A Heerman’s Gull landed close in front allowing wonderful looks at its deep red bill and subtle gray plumage.

Herring Gull

Herring (above) and Ring-billed Gulls were in the biggest numbers, as expected.

Bufflehead
We departed the La Jolla area and drove back to the Bird Fest venue to man our respective booths, but made one last stop along the San Diego River to look for shorebirds and waterfowl. We were not disappointed as we found many Bufflehead as well as a few Long-billed Curlew and Willet.
When we arrived in the parking lot Marci mentioned having seen a Cooper’s Hawk nest in the area. As if on cue, the Cooper’s Hawk, pictured at the top, flew in and perched in a tree across from the nest!
photos and text © Kevin Loughlin

2 Comments

  1. Mary on March 7, 2011 at 8:38 AM

    Splendid entries, just beautiful, yet I must say great and perfect timing to have captured the very quick Coopers Hawk settled for a moment on a branch~ Great one~

  2. Wildside Nature Tours on March 7, 2011 at 10:25 PM

    Thanks Mary – as I always say, "Nature photography is 98% patience, 1% skill and certainly, as in this case, 1% luck!"

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