A Red-Tailed Hawk In Elysian Park

 Hey all,

It's been a long and arduous lockdown--and yes, for those of us who've been playing by the rules, it has been a lockdown--so on those few times that I do get to go out, I try to get the most out of it. One of the ways I do this is my semi-regular walks through Elysian Park, which is pretty much my backyard. The park is home to many kinds of local wildlife, and a few days ago, I encountered a hawk perched on a wire. This is not an unusual type of incident, and at the time, I wished that I had one of my cameras with me to mark the event. I managed to shoot the bird on my phone, but that's of course nowhere near the quality of the images I normally produce with my DSLRs.

So yesterday morning, as I got up to go on my walk, the little voice inside my head that talks to me about creative stuff said, "Go and get the long lens, and bring it with you on your walk." I knew what lens the voice meant: my 200-400mm f/4 with a 1.4x extender. For those not familiar with photography, that's a big, heavy brute of a lens, not normally something that one takes out for casual shooting. It has the ability to reach across an entire room to get your subject...in fact, it's the lens I used to photograph Diana Ross at the Hollywood Bowl a couple of years ago.

So, in my half-awake state, I said, "Yeah, yeah, that sounds like a good idea, I'll think about it." And the voice said, "No. Go get the lens, and bring it with you. Now." The voice doesn't talk like that to me very often, and I've learned that when it does, it's a good idea to pay attention to it. So, I dutifully got one of my Nikons, put the big boy on it, and headed out into the park.

It took less than ten minutes on the trail for the voice to be proven right, because my to my huge surprise, a red-tailed hawk swooped out of the sky, and landed on the ground not more than twenty feet from me.

Now, there are a couple of things you need to understand about hawks. First of all, they don't like people very much--in fact, they tend to avoid people whenever possible. Now yes, in an urban environment like Los Angeles, they've made some adjustments in order to co-exist with us, but for the most part, they tend to stay away from us. (The exception being when they snack on small pets, of course.)

Second of all, hawks don't like to be caught on the ground, at all. They are vulnerable on the ground, and they are well aware of that fact. Their main hangout is in the trees, high above our streets and houses. Only occasionally do they swoop down to ground level, usually in pursuit of a squirrel, rabbit, or other small furry animal in the hills. 

So when this bird glided down from the sky and touched down just a stone's throw from me, I was gobsmacked, for about three seconds. That's how much time it took for my brain to send the command to my arms to get the camera out and start shooting. Given that this bird could take off and leave at literally any second, I started shooting like a wildlife paparazzi.

Let me tell you, this bird was totally not intimidated by my presence; it just casually stood on the ground, grooming its feathers and looking around for evidence of snacks lurking below the ground. It totally knew that it could have easily flown away if it felt threatened.

And if this weren't enough, the bird allowed me to inch closer to it, as near as fifteen feet...and gave me a wink. Seriously, you can see it here. I had no idea that hawks had reflective eyelids...that's the sky you see in the one closed lid.

After a few minutes, the hawk decided to leave, and when it did, I naturally thanked it as it swooped upward into its natural environment. 

There are many more pics available, but I thought that these would be enough to whet your interest. More to come later.