After peering through a pair of high-powered binoculars for only a few minutes from a grassy embankment, slowly scanning the sky over the lower-lying flat green land sprawling below, I see a majestic bird sweep into view and soar upward, its impressive wingspan silhouetted against the backdrop mesa of the near and distant Santa Maria Mountains.
It banks toward me and soars higher, the binoculars’ zoom feature making it seem so close that I could reach out and touch its impressive black-tipped white-and-tan-speckled wingspan. I watch it suddenly arc high in fast flight, then hover for a moment before dive-bombing at great speed into some short scrub, the ochre-red namesake tail feathers of this red-tailed hawk quivering vibrantly in the midmorning sun.
