On Veteran’s Day I headed out to Point Reyes and the Estero Trailhead. My destination: Drake’s Head.

About ten years previously I headed out with this headland as my destination but was halting by a mad cow across the trail so I reversed course.

I hit the trail from the parking lot at 8:20, and I hoped no cows would be blocking my path.

I made it to the wooden bridge at the edge of Home Bay by 8:47, yes I was noting times as I reached certain landmarks. I looked into the tidal waters below for bat rays and leopard sharks, no dice.

After the wooden bridge the Estero Trail started to climb and I had great views of Home Bay and the cormorants, buffleheads, and pelicans on the waters. Near shore was a family of three river otters terrorizing, as they do, the local wildlife.

The Estero trail rose and fell over the curvaceous shoreline until I reached the junction of the Estero and the Sunset Beach Trail (at 9:30).

Here I took a left turn over the open country that is also grazing land.

There was a lack of bovine in the open pasture and the occasional dried out cow pie and the empty old cattle trough were the only reminders that cows had used this land for grazing. So it looked like I would finally make it to Drake’s Head.

It felt good to be in the open plains, with the wind in my ears, stirring up meadowlarks underfoot and watching a harrier with it’s kestrel escort. On the low ridge was a buck that I almost took for an elk.

As I neared the headland, I approached a small grove of eucalyptus trees with a very vocal red-tailed hawk. This call is used liberally in movies and nature documentaries and is very recognizable (whether the raptor featured is red-tail or not). Buteo jamaicensis is very quiet for most of the year, especially out of the breeding season. Why this hawk was so vocal was a mystery. One of those mysteries that keeps me hiking out to explore nature.

I summited the low headland with the Limatour Split in front of me and the entrance to Drake’s Estero and beyond, Chimney Rock.

I found a sandy hollow sketching perch at the edge of the headland and pulled out my panoramic sketchbook to capture the incredible view, fully realizing that my sketch could never truly capture the beauty of what was before me.

After my sketch and a snack I returned back on the Drake’s Head Trail and this time the nature really began to show. On a ridge was a group of four bull elk.

Along the hike I had seen kestrels, harriers, an osprey, and a red-tailed hawk. Now it was time for a First of Season (FOS) raptor, a wintering king raptor. A buteo or broad-wing hawk. I first saw a soaring hawk appearing from my left. This raptor looked a little different than your resident red-tail.

This was Buteo regalis, the ferruginous hawk. This was a harbinger of winter. A raptor that spends its time hunting in the wide open spaces, south of its breeding range.