The Wild Coachella Challenge: Week 3

We've entered the final week of the challenge, and there's a tight race for the top spot on the observations chart, with iNat users @rbelshee and @eogren with near 600 observations each. The competition part of the challenge is still wide open, though - there's still plenty of time to make observations, and remember that while you have to make the observation during the month of March, you'll have until Monday, April 6th to add them to iNat.

To highlight my favorite observations of the week I'm going to cheat a bit and tell you the story of 2 observations that are not actually part of the challenge, because I made them. Here's the first one, a red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) that I saw on an evening walk with my wife, Sendy, near our home. We live nearby the Homme Adams and Cahuilla Hills parks in Palm Desert, and we've been getting really familiar with all the little paths and side canyons in the area while we're sheltering in place. On our way home on Friday were treated to a really nice view of a large hawk perched on the light posts at the Cahuilla Hills tennis courts right next to the trail.

Then this common raven (Corvus corax) came by and started attacking the hawk, circling and dive-bombing while staying just out of reach of the predator. For awhile, the red-tail didn't seem particularly moved by the raven, other than a few squawks when it got too close, but eventually it took off towards town. That really made the raven mad, which then forced the red-tail to the ground, which had to wait awhile for the raven to leave before it stealthily flew low to the ground back to it's perch at the tennis courts.

It's hard to say for sure what caused this interaction between the two birds. Ravens are sometimes maligned for their loud habits, tendency to eat trash, and especially their predatory behaviors towards sensitive species like the desert tortoise, while we generally think of hawks as majestic creatures. However, I suspect that in this case the raven might be the sympathetic character in the story. Over the last few days we've been watching at least one raven in the area gathering nesting materials, and it's possible that the raven was defending it's young from the hawk, which would happily make a meal of raven eggs or little baby chicks. In any case, it was a great reminder of the amazing wildlife we can find right in our "backyard" here in the Coachella Valley.

Stay well, and keep the amazing observations coming!

Colin Barrows
Friends of the Desert Mountains