![]() Wilma Chan Highland Hospital Campus’ 60,000 square foot courtyard was completed two years ago by landscape architects Keller Mitchell & Co., contractor Park West, and Cynthia Greenberg of ReScape. The hawks also wait patiently in the cedar and redwood trees on the 14th Avenue side of the hospital, springing into action when they spot ground squirrels or other rodents. Nomura has seen clusters of freshly plucked pigeon feathers atop the hospital buildings and below tree perches. The birds frequently rest atop the eight-story acute-care tower, swiveling their heads and gazing down among the bushes and grass for prey. And there’s a ground squirrel population on the other side.” One of the red tailed hawks that calls Highland Hospital home soars above the healthcare campus on Tuesday, June 28, 2022. I think the garden brought in so many birds, that’s a lot of what they’re eating. “That’s when I noticed them, when they made the courtyard their territory. “You’d see this big bird silhouetted in the courtyard,” said Nomura. ![]() According to the Oakland Zoo, they can live up to 20 years in the wild, although many die young.Īnn Nomura, a physical therapist who has worked at Highland for 28 years, first noticed the hawks in late April or early May. With wingspans of four feet, red tails, or Buteo jamaicensis, are among the largest birds in North America. Today, the trees in the courtyard still aren’t big enough to entice a bird as big as a hawk to nest there, though. “It was just a docking bay where trucks would make deliveries. Before it was a garden, the courtyard was a sterile parking lot. He maintains the garden and has watched over the past couple of years as it has attracted more wildlife like hummingbirds, wrens, and butterflies. Steve Hosman has worked for Alameda Health System, the public agency that operates Highland, for 18 years. The Wilma Chan Highland Hospital Campus’ new courtyard drew the hawks to its center Highland’s central courtyard was transformed from a parking lot into a lush garden several years ago. They’ve become beloved inhabitants of the East Oakland healthcare center, and a symbol of the many creatures that make little rewilded pockets of Oakland their home. The hawks, which have yet to be granted names by an adoring public, raised at least one, and possibly two chicks this spring in a nest on the southern end of the campus. Now it seems Oakland’s Highland Hospital has its own fine-feathered story to tell. And for the past several months, a pair of red-tailed hawks have put on a show for Highland, perching like sentries on the rooftops around the courtyard, scanning the ground, gracefully swooping between trees-and dive-bombing prey. Many of the patient rooms, offices, and hallways have panoramic views of this courtyard, which fills up at lunchtime each day with doctors, nurses, other staff, and visitors. At the center of the healthcare complex is an enormous courtyard planted with a fragrant landscape of native and drought-tolerant flora. The buildings and paths resemble an old university that’s grown into the modern age. The triangularly shaped Wilma Chan Highland Hospital Campus on 14th Avenue in East Oakland is built on a gentle hill, with the newer, sleek glass towers housing the emergency room and acute care at the top, and the institution’s old Spanish Baroque halls, built in 1927 and topped with ornate cupolas, at the bottom.
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