A Beautiful Sunday Walk

Sometimes the weather is so perfect in Southern California that you just want to spend the whole day outdoors. Well, last Sunday a friend who has just started birding and I spent the whole day birding. First we went to check on the Great Horned Owl's nest and then we went for a beautiful drive inland. We ended up at Kit Carson Park and then back to check on the owl again.

Walking about a block away from the owl's nest tree, we spotted a raptor that had just flown onto a big California Sycamore tree. I focused my camera and to my surprise the raptor is a beautiful Cooper's Hawk with prey.

The red eyes show that this is a mature adult.

He appears to be looking for something. He is looking past me and not eager to begin eating his prey. 

  

Looking all round.

He starts to de-feather the bird prey but very slowly.

 

If he was hungry, he would have finished eating the prey by now. He plucks at the prey and looks around again.

He stops and appears to wait for something.

Close-up showing the prey. Appears to be a young bird. Maybe a Song sparrow?

Wow, suddenly, a young Cooper's Hawk shows up to claim the prey. The adult jumps away and the prey is up for grabs.

The youngster misses the prey and the adult grabs it again and flies to another tree nearby. Here is a shot of the young Cooper's Hawk looking quite disappointed. This is a life lesson that the adult is teaching the youngster.

Another look at the youngster. She is a big one. Bigger then the adult with prey. The female Cooper's Hawks can be up to 1/3 bigger than the males. 

Close-up. What a beauty!

Turns and shows us her back.

She is looking at the adult with the prey in a nearby tree.

The adult is pretending to be eating the prey but he is just teasing the youngster. Slowly he starts to de-feather again.

Close-up of the adult defeathering the prey. He is very aware of his youngster on a nearby tree. In a blink of an eye, the youngster swoops to the branch where the adult is holding the prey and grabs it successfully.  LOL, I missed capturing the whole action because I put my camera down for one second to talk to my friend.  Rule no. 1:  "Never take your eye off the ball"!

Walking on towards the owl's nest tree we spot a young male Hooded Oriole.

A Wilson's Warbler makes an appearance.

In this photo you can see it is a male. Only the male has the black cap.

A Pacific-slope Flycatcher enjoys the morning sun.

Walking to the owl's nest and looking to see if they are active today. The nestlings were both sound asleep so we decided to go to Kit Carson Park to see what is going on over there. On our way to the truck, I spot this Nashville Warbler in the shade.

He is a beauty. 

In a nearby tree, a quick look at a Hutton's Vireo. Hope to get a better look next time. 

We arrive at Kit Carson Park in Escondido and the pond is full of Mallards and American Wigeons. Kids are all around feeding bread to the ducks. Walking to the west side of the murky algae-filled pond, I spot a Pied-billed Grebe.

Lots of Mallard babies.

This Mallard mom appeared very protective. 

Another group of babies spotted in the middle of the pond but did not see any adult with them. I would call this place a target-rich environment for raptors or even Great Blue Herons. 

They are really adorable at this stage. 

We walked around the east side of the park looking for a raptor nest. Didn't find one but found a cute little Pacific-slope Flycatcher. 

Note the white eye-ring shaped like a teardrop behind the eye, the yellow lower bill, and how the primary wing feathers (the longest ones) don't stick out too much from under the other wing feathers.

A Bushtit looking for bugs.

Side view of the Pacific-slope Flycatcher.

A cute pose.  And a really good look at that big wide and yellow lower bill.  These types of flycatchers, the Empidonax, can be very hard to tell apart!

One last look and we are ready to walk back to the truck. 

As we turn to walk back towards the parking lot, I spot an Acorn Woodpecker.

Notice the red cap. The red cap surrounded by black feathers on the head shows that this is a female. 

A nice side view of this female Acorn Woodpecker. 

As we slowly walk towards the parking lot, I noticed there were hundreds of little holes in the grass. Here's why:  A gopher pops up form his diggings. 

He is looking out for predators. He quickly disappears into his tunnels.

Arriving at our truck, I spot something sticking out of a hole in a dead tree. It's a couple of nestlings begging for food.

It's a European Starling's nest with two hungry nestlings.

They are quite strange looking at this stage.

My attention is diverted to a Kingbird landing with prey in the next tree. 

This appears to be a Cassin's Kingbird. Notice the strong contrast of the white dash under the chin.

Close-up of the bug.

 

Frontal view. You can also tell that he doesn't have the white outer tail feathers of the Western Kingbird which is visiting our county right now.

Close-up of the prey.

LOL, I have the truck door open and ready to go but just couldn't resist getting a shot of this female Acorn Woodpecker only a few dozen feet away.

This park is loaded with these woodpeckers.

They are everywhere! 

Just about to put my camera away and the adult European Starling shows up with prey for the youngsters. 

The adult is very cautious and keeps looking behind her.

Finally feeds the youngsters.

There are dozens of Starlings in nearby trees.

The youngster is still begging as if it has not been fed. There are plenty of bugs around and I'm sure it will be well taken care of .

The adult flies off and it's time for us to go too. Heading to In-N-Out Burger for lunch. We decide after lunch to go back to check on the Great Horned Owl's nest.

After a nice long drive on the coast, we arrived back at the owls nest and found that one of the youngsters was awake this time. 

Talking to the property guard, I found out that they both have been branching and doing wing exercises. Looks like they will soon be fledging.

 

One last look as the little one stares back at all the people staring up at her. I hope to check on them more next week. I'm sure they both will be branching and flapping their wings getting ready for the big moment. What a beautiful Sunday walk!

Have a super week everyone!