Weekend Walk Report: Look out, Dusty!

 This was the second time I've seen this happen. This time to our dear brave friend, male Calypte anna hummingbird, Dusty. The event took place yesterday, October 21st at 8:16 AM. I had finished most of the walking I had planned on but heading back to my car I decided to detour to visit the botanical garden for a second time since I didn't see Dusty the first round. Sure enough, there was Dusty slightly above his usual perch in the now dead California bay tree, minding his own business while I talked to both him in the tree and to Docken over the phone...

I moved in a little closer even though I knew the backdrop of the bright blue morning sky would represent a challenge.

Dusty suddenly turned his head slightly...

and just as suddenly, he was gone.

In what seemed to me to be the same moment. this appeared...

Yeah, that's a crappy picture but I defy anyone to have done better when a red-tailed hawk basically was flying right toward your face, crashing into a palo verde tree that clearly couldn't support its velocity or its size and weight. The hawk was after Dusty. I figured the line of attack out when I revisited the garden today. The hawk was up in the tall pine tree while Dusty's general location is marked with his name within the California bay tree. My best guess is that Dusty was aware of the incoming hawk between 1-2 seconds before I was.

This happened once before however it was a Cooper's hawk coming in on an Allen's hummingbird. That story resides here. Cooper's hawks are fairly common in the botanical garden, red-tailed hawks are not. The garden simply is not structured for their size. Here are some shots post the unsuccessful (whew!) attack.

Here are a few shots from earlier during the main effort to get a decent walk in.

There's always a mockingbird. Although I would have sworn this bird had a yellow breast when I took the picture and I thought maybe it was a Cassin's kingbird. In my defense the sun was coming in rather brutally at the right side of my head.

Brewer's blackbirds. I've got this ID straight now.

Western bluebird, a small North American thrush. There were three of them on this line.

Canada geese. Might as well cal them something else now since they don't seem too inclined to migrate back to Canada.

 Sunday. today, October 22.

I really didn't take any decent pictures and the walk was basically cut short by a ripple in time.

There was this red-tailed hawk off in the distance and I did see Dusty but he was too high up in a Caesalpinia cacalaco tree and a little too active for a photo session.

Special thanks to Docken for helping me out over the phone, especially today. ❤️