Red Tail Redux

It has been a cold and wet week in the Santa Margarita River Valley. Today we had hail, last night snow was forecast down to a thousand feet but never materialized.

The river was raging when I left for work this morning, an angry flow that would sweep away anything in its path. Our narrow road into the canyon is muddy but still traversable.

We first saw the large red tail female about two weeks ago, hanging around close to the old nest but never going inside. Her chest was huge and white, like our last mama hawk. While the large sycamore tree was full of leaves two years ago when we were graced with the birth of the three baby red tails,  the tree is barren and denuded at present.

I got a call from my neighbors this morning that the hawk was in the nest, seemingly laying on eggs. I left work a bit early, in the rain and took my trusty 300mm lens with me in hopes of getting some shots of the new family to be.

While the textbooks tell you that a juvenile will not mate for three years, I am pretty confident that this is our young female. I got so many pictures in 2009 that I am hoping to make a detailed comparison in the weeks and months ahead.

When I drove by the nest, perched about 150' off the ground, I found that the male was in the nest, taking his turn, while the female sat on a high tree branch far overhead. I stood in the rain and took some rather clumsy and perfunctory shots that will have to do for now. I know that magic awaits!

Last year was a rather flat year in the valley on the avian front but this year is turning out great, with our resident osprey and a host of other birds of prey cruising around on a daily basis. A rainbow rose out of my back yard as I got home and the blue herons sailed in tandem over the river's canopy.

I am looking forward to getting some really good shots, especially if Doug lets me use his 400 mm. lens. This gives me something else to look forward to this spring. I am not a superstitious person, except perhaps in the narrowest and most jungian sense of the word, but hawks and rainbows, now there's a good omen.