Just a day after we returned from New Mexico, a juvenile Gray Hawk was discovered by Eric Culbertson in Carpinteria, CA – not only a first Santa Barbara County record but first record ever in California. To give you an idea of how improbable this is, this is a bird that is normally found in South and Central America. It’s range barely extends into the extreme Southeastern corner of Arizona. I’ve photographed them many times in Patagonia, AZ – just 25 or so miles from the Mexico border. The even cooler part is the bird decided to stick around the entire winter!
Range map:
I decided to take my chances waiting for morning rush hour to end and rush up the 160 or so round-trip miles to Carpinteria to photograph the bird. Lucky for me, the bird was perched in a cypress tree right on the side of the highway as I drove up. I almost felt guilty spending 5 minutes photographing the bird (before it flew off) and then getting back in my car to drive home. Total time invested: 3 hours.
Gray Hawk
Gray Hawk
Robyn P
December 7, 2013 at 2:14 pm
What beautiful photos! You are soo lucky 😉
Ara
September 24, 2018 at 7:07 pm
Exploring new places started way back in the 15th century, whereby people had the anxiety of knowing sources of rivers, finding out unfamiliar things, learning about different cultures and even looking for peace of mind.