Coco spent the entire day at San Andreas Lake. This is the same location since Saturday. In the End-of-the-Day Message, Bill James said, "Coco must really like this place." Larry has wondered whether this is a good place for a red-tailed hawk, since it's coastal chaparral with lots of shrubs and a few trees. We're so used to seeing redtails hunt over more open lands that this kind of habitat doesn't fit our image of good redtail country. In talking with Buzz (GGROResearch Director), he commented that sometimes we do not remember the wide variety of prey that redtails are looking for. Sure, they like ground critters, but they also take small birds; and chaparral is full of small birds. We've tracked many redtails who flew right past this location... and kept going. To each, his own.
After a tracked bird remains in the same location for a fourth day, we declare it a stationary bird, and seek to move on to a new bird. So, we'll leave Coco to his chosen home..... by the way, he's our first "Lake Hawk"..... and tomorrow we'll ask the banders to provide a new subject. There's a storm headed our way, so we hope we can get another raptor before the rains arrive. Meanwhile, we'll leave two teams with Coco until we get the call that we have a new bird.
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