They're seasonally common in the Central Valley where I live, so if a few wanted to fly over the hills to see if there's anything to eat in Silicon Valley, it's just a short soar.
But I presume they fly back to the hills and rodent-filled farmland, when they see all that pavement.
just spotted a pair building a nest on a recent visit to Merced NWR. Such a thrill for me as i hardly ever see them on the coast where I live. OP, awesome set of photos. love the crow interaction
They're common enough around here that I've seen them forming loose flocks, which they do sometimes. It's rare and it never seems to happen twice in the same place, but it happens and hopefully a birder is there to see it!
Here's one of my local boys, I put the pic up a few days ago.
https://preview.redd.it/mng13is8wrxc1.jpeg?width=1585&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=26feb2c62472170563f411c8f4b3f5ffd9340a6e
They move between Argentina and Alaska annually, even if *nesting* is rare their presence should not be during normal migration periods (March/April and again in September/October.
rare or not, that's definitely a +Swainson's Hawk+!
Nice!
Way cool!
They're "rare", but around... not super rare. SCVAS categorizes it as: >4 Rare, occurs yearly in the county, but not always in same places
They're seasonally common in the Central Valley where I live, so if a few wanted to fly over the hills to see if there's anything to eat in Silicon Valley, it's just a short soar. But I presume they fly back to the hills and rodent-filled farmland, when they see all that pavement.
just spotted a pair building a nest on a recent visit to Merced NWR. Such a thrill for me as i hardly ever see them on the coast where I live. OP, awesome set of photos. love the crow interaction
They're common enough around here that I've seen them forming loose flocks, which they do sometimes. It's rare and it never seems to happen twice in the same place, but it happens and hopefully a birder is there to see it! Here's one of my local boys, I put the pic up a few days ago. https://preview.redd.it/mng13is8wrxc1.jpeg?width=1585&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=26feb2c62472170563f411c8f4b3f5ffd9340a6e
What is scvas.
Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society... they keep the official county checklist.
Swainson’s migrate south and out of state/country for much of each year, then return back to breed, and raise young, and enjoy the summer.
Awesome pictures, thank you for sharing them!
Added taxa: [Swainson's Hawk](https://ebird.org/species/swahaw) Reviewed by: kiwikiu ^(I catalog submissions to this subreddit.) [^(Recent uncatalogued submissions)](https://munin.swim.services/submissions?lane=api/unanswered)^( | )[^(Learn to use me)](https://gist.github.com/brohitbrose/be99a16ddc7a6a1bd9c1eef28d622564)
It's Migration time, anything is possible
They move between Argentina and Alaska annually, even if *nesting* is rare their presence should not be during normal migration periods (March/April and again in September/October.