While on the Bell View Trail today in Rancho Santa Margarita with my cohort Mike Sanders, the both of us spotted an Accipiter flying overhead. Mike had his binoculars, I was viewing the Accipiter with a 400mm lens and trying to obtain exposure for the image. Mike declared this was a Cooper’s Hawk. About a minute later what appeared to be the same Accipiter flew back over the ridge and I did note clearly the squared off tail, took a another photo and was confident this was a Sharp-shinned Hawk. What I didn’t realize due to the 3″ screen on the rear of the camera and back lit subjects, we had just seen both: A Cooper’s Hawk adult and Sharp-shinned Hawk immature approximately 1 minute apart. Post processing this evening demystified our sighting today and an updated eBird entry reflecting both Accipiters. Here’s the two images overlapped into a single image that solved the mystery – we were both correct.
eBird Checklist for 2-21-2015 at Bell View Trail
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