Darin’s Monday Photo: Hawk and Raven

Comment 1 by Anneliese Agren  on  May 28  at  1:11pm  •  All my comments • 

Get out! How’d you find such a serendipitous avian appearance?

Darin,

Every year at the north parking lot of Montara State Beach we have ravens that have learned to perch on the edge of the garbage cans and pull up the poly bag liners until they can get at what was dropped to the bottom. (Can’t help but notice your shot is in a place where birds might be exploiting a human-created situation.)

The raven aerobatics (plus those of other birds) above the ridges of Montara Mountain can be sensational. Throughout the coastside, smaller birds often harrass (notorious nest-robbing) ravens, and ravens, in turn, are often seen harrassing hawks (something that happens in my neighborhood frequently, with the hawk involved sometimes being driven out of a tree to the ground). Then there was the scene last week in which three seagulls were taking turns diving from above at a redtail hawk hovering almost motionless over a ridge above the ocean, coming within maybe 4-6 feet on each dive but failing to move the hawk from position.

Carl May