When I lived in Virginia, I saw a great blue heron nearly every single time I went out. I came to expect it. Although I see them occasionally here in California it is by no means a given. What IS becoming a given, though, is seeing a red tailed hawk. Here is my daily red tail from my walk around Hayward Shoreline the other afternoon:
He was REALLY low to the ground; you can see how low here:
Are you *positive* that’s not a Coop?
No, I’m NEVER positive about bird ID and now that you mention it it does look like a Coop. He looked very large from where I was, and some guy happened to walk by and say it was a red tail, and I now expect to see red tails all the time, but maybe I should learn a lesson about rashly making assumptions.