A feather from a Northern Flicker blows around this Cooper’s bill. ~ In case you missed it, I have new Medium piece up on the Davis/Wiener history of L.A. in the Sixties. It’s not about hawks–but the next one will be.

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More hyper-local American Kestrels. These are about a 1/3rd of an avenue block away. They’re acting like it’s April! One avenue block away, several minutes earlier. The female has food here. A few blocks away in Green-Wood… Male chasing a Red-tailed Hawk. On a linden with a view. Red-tailed Hawks and Coopers Hawks perch up…

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From a distance: the large-headed silhouette of a small falcon. This tree on a hill is Merlin country in the winter months, but the last time I saw something up there a few weeks ago it was an American Kestrel. This time, by the time I hustled up closer, the bird was gone. A couple…

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From two long avenue blocks away… hence the muddiness of these images. A Peregrine has been perching of a morning atop Mike’s Spike, not an unusual winter habit for this species. The first image, of a Peregrine in flight, looks like another bird, a juvenile this time; class of ’22. The fifth of five straight…

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Incoming! I was watching a Merlin from some distance and saw it fly off. Merlins may perch hunt, returning to the same perch after a foray. So when this raptor came back to the tree, I assumed it would be the Merlin again. The photos, of course, tell a different story. A mature Accipiter. Reddish…

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Neighborhood American Kestrels. Winter heat inside. frigid temps outside = lens distortions.

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It’s beginning to smell a lot like Raptor-mas! This is the same Red-tailed Hawk in flight, the light playing some changes on looks. This one, born this year, has a full crop and is enjoying some post-prandial sunshine and passing jet noise. Another day, elsewhere in Green-Wood: possibly the same heavily-marked juvenile being harassed by…

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Raptor Week 2022 begins with this dino-soaring Cooper’s continuing to dine on a Northern Flicker.

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Chambered light brown pith: Eastern Black Walnut (Juglans nigra). Chambered dark brown pith: Butternut (Juglans cinerea). Walnut/Butternut. Pith description detail from Woody Plants in Winter by Core and Ammons. Chambered pith is unusual. Here’s a White Oak (Quercus alba) twig for comparison. Core and Ammons describe Quercus as having “pith moderate, continuous, star-shaped in cross…

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Note the hole. The branches of this Kentucky Yellowwood were well-mined. It took about four minutes of pecking and pounding to get inside the twig in this particular case. Now, these branches are live wood, but it looks like something has hollowed them out for growing/pupating. But what?

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