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Monday, October 24, 2011

Parrots, Crows and a Hawk in the Urban Jungle


Hubby and I were heading back to our car in a Safeway parking lot yesterday when I noticed a flock of crows harassing a hawk right above us.


Around and around they flew. The crows never actually attacked or touched the hawk, but at the same time they never ceased surrounding and mobbing it. It was the strangest thing. I've seen it happen a time or two before with just a bird or two but with a flock of nine crows it was really quite a spectacle.


I'm no ornithologist but I'd read in the past that crows do this because they are territorial and also because they often want to drive hawks away from their nests and young. Eventually the hawk flew higher which caused some of the crows to lose interest but a few tried to stick with it.

I wish I had my new and better Lumix GF2 camera with me!

Two Mitred Conures haning out in Cupertino

I should have known better because just the other day I had another avian photo op in a Cupertino parking lot when a large flock of, probably around two dozen, Mitred Conures came to feed in some trees. Indigenous to South America the conures are able to survive our mild winters due to an abundance of fruit and berry trees.

There is an established flock of conures that usually live in Sunnyvale, just on the other side of Highway 280 but this year they seem to be expanding their range into Cupertino. They made such a din with their squawking but when they all took to wing at the same time they were really beautiful!

I also took this image with my old Lumix DMC LX3 point and shoot. All of these photos would have been so much better had I had my micro four thirds Lumix GF2 with the zoom lens with me! These two back to back incidences are definitely reminders that I should be carrying both cameras with me at all times!

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