Red-shouldered Hawks at El Estero Park, Monterey

Monday is Bird Walk Day and as usual our group met with our local expert, Brian Weed. We observed many of the expected birds on the El Estero Park Lake for a Winter morning but we were not expecting to see a Red-shouldered Hawk on the grass some distance away. The hawk predators are usually high in the trees above, keeping watch for the days meal.

It looked like the hawk had some other large bird pinned beneath it and we speculated that it could be a gull. On moving closer this was our first view. The hawk was certainly keeping a watchful eye out for any predators and had some large bird captive. A group of Crows was harassing from above but the hawk was unfazed.
Cornell info here.

Sorry about the encroachment of the Blog Format on the right. We didn't want to reduce the size of the photo.

As we moved a little closer, we could see that the bird being attacked was another Red-shouldered Hawk. Was the encounter territorial or perhaps a mating? We could not be sure but the encounter definitely did not appear to be friendly.

As the encounter progressed for perhaps a minute, we became aware that little apparent damage was being inflicted. It seemed to be more of a "stand-off" and not a fight to the death. Maybe it was a territorial dispute.

Then, from the left of this scene, two people approached - totally oblivious of the Red-shouldered Hawk "happening" in front of them. The inevitable happened - the hawks bolted. Unfortunately, they went in different directions and the camera auto focus couldn't follow. Forgive us for including an out-of-focus shot but we had to include the end of the encounter. Note that the grass between the two hawks is in focus - the camera tried.

We approached the scene of the encounter and saw just a few feathers that could have come from the hawks. There was little evidence that this had happened and the harassing crows retreated as well. Life in the Park was barely influenced by this one minute encounter. Life goes on but we were fortunate to be nearby with the Nikon D7000 and a 500mm lens set-up. The shutter priority was set to 1/1000 and the lens chose f6.7 with ISO at 280 - just not enough depth of field to bring both hawks into focus.
This new camera does not disappoint!