ML645622136

Observation details

Saw it perched on the stadium and first thought kestrel, but posture didn't fit. Digibinning didn't help due to the distance, so I walked closer to find a better view, thinking finally a peregrine. Manoeuvering through the buildings, I watched the bird's silhouette through a live oak crown. But it suddenly disappeared, Minato-esque; in the next frame I saw an outline in the canopy with outstretched wings, and in the following, it landed in the oak right in front of me. A squirrel darted away but the hawk didn't follow. It glared at me for a bit then just hopped further along the branch. (Dark cap standing out from mantle and rest of dorsum.) What a sighting! It moved from the top railings of Death Valley to Julian White Hall in hardly 2 sec!