On a recent beautiful Sunday morning I went for my long stroll–out the house, down the road through my neighborhood, over the hill to Garden Farms, and back through the edge of the Santa Margarita Ranch and Margarita Farms (which I call Fancy Farms). I like this route, even though I always come home dog tired from the length, because it gives me a chance to walk through a large open space, remnant from when the Santa Margarita Ranch was the only development here. From time to time I’ll see Northern Harriers and Peregrine Falcons here; more regularly I’ll have screaming Red-shouldered Hawks, perched Red-taileds, and even hunting White-tailed Kites (sometimes affording very close views).
This morning the views were more distant but still amazing. It began with a distant view of a White-tailed Kite hovering (they rarely, perhaps never, actually “kite,” soaring from one location to the next and hovering without flapping) above a field. (In fact, there were two kites, but only one came close enough for any kind of aerial view.)
It was a bit far away for good photos, so I wished for it to come closer. To my surprise, it did!
Unfortunately for me, the duly authorized representative of the local Red-winged Blackbird neighborhood watch was not too sanguine about the location of these new hunting grounds (something about right of way or prior occupancy, I was too far away to hear the specifics of the complaint) and decided to make this known by escorting the bird to the boundary line:
Afterward, the kite pair (I assume these are a pair, but I’m not sure) seemed to have a bit of discussion about who really rules the skies around here.
