Field Guides

Cottonwood Springs in Joshua Tree National Park was a special place for me. It was the end of a long day exploring the park, but this was our last stop before heading out. Most of us were exhausted and not excited to hike nearly a mile down the road to get to the trailhead. It turns out we could’ve driven there all along, but I’m glad we didn’t.
As we neared the end of the road, I wandered off into the brush, looking for actually anything I could find. I scanned the landscape and up above me, perched so stoically on the top of a boulder was a very large bird of prey. Now, I wasn’t on the bird squad for this trip, nor would I ever consider myself a true birder. They always kept me frustrated by flying away at the exact worst moment. However, large birds like this one always intrigued me. They are such powerful creatures, some with wingspans nearly the size of me or bigger! They are swift and they are precise, but most of all I think they are respected, as creatures that when most of us are asked, we would choose to be.
I needed to get a closer look and calmly inched closer to the piling of rocks it was sitting atop, using the approach skills I had learned in previous wildlife courses. Head down, gaze off in the distance, and quiet side steps. Of course I was able to get pretty close until my curiosity became too much for the bird. I could see it begin to lift its shoulders and spread its wings into the air and I waited with camera in hand for this creature to take flight.
I clicked so rapidly, hoping that I could get at least one good shot. Turns out I got a few; all the angles necessary for an accurate identification. I was pretty excited, and as soon as we made it back to the car I opened the field guide for North American birds and a member of the bird squad and I flipped through the pages rapidly. What puzzled us the most was my bird did not distinctly resemble any of the ones we saw in front of us. Either the head color was wrong or the range was off, but we kept striking out. The reason being was, I had found a pretty special bird: a red tailed hawk with a coloration that varied from the common look.
It made me realize something that I already knew, these animals that we are finding out here are not the average, cookie-cutter models for the species. Yes, the desert out here is so diverse but so are the individuals within the species that we stumble upon.

Posted on March 24, 2018 05:25 AM by torihanley