A Hawk Over the Dominguez Gap Wetlands

A hawk hovering over the Dominguez Gap Wetlands in November. I tried to figure out what sort it was, but I'm not up on hawks? Perhaps a female kestrel? I'm going mostly by the color of the underside and the fact that she(?) spent a lot of time hovering in the evening. I never got a good look at the upper wings, and I am no good yet on comparative wing shape etc.

It was beautiful, in any case, white against the evening sky.

Hawk in Huntington Beach Central Park

Do You Know This Bird?

I spent some time by the beach a bit over a week ago watching this hawk fly.

It stayed just over the bluffs, changing wing and tail ever so slightly to stay in place while it watched the ground.

Then it rested for a while.

It was splendid, shining in the warm air, striped, speckled and all together wonderful.

However... I do not know what kind of bird it is.

Shipley Nature Center

I don't visit the Nature Center nearly as often as I'd like. And I almost never get the pictures I want. But--I have a lot of fun when I do go, and usually get to see quite a bit. This last time was the first time I had ever seen turtles there. Couldn't get very close to any of them (and wow, they can move quickly when it comes to getting into the water).




The hawk I initially thought was a dove of some sort. It wasn't until looking at the picture later that I realized, nope, a much fiercer sort of creature was involved.

And yes, there really is something in the bushes there.




The Two Fishers is actually from outside the nature center (thus the human fisher), but no one told the heron that.