SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – After much anticipation, the names for Highland Hospital's red-tailed hawks have finally been christened: Stormy and Sunny.
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Stormy, the male, and Sunny, the female, have been nesting in a tree at the Wilma Chan Highland Hospital Campus' courtyard area.
The courtyard used to be a loading dock area, but a few years ago Alameda County worked with the Oakland hospital to turn the area into a drought-resistant, landscaped courtyard, which has since attracted quite a bit of wildlife, including the birds, AHS Media and Communications Manager Eleanor Ajala said Thursday in an interview with KCBS Radio.
The couple has been on the campus for quite some time, according to Ajala no one is quite sure how long they've been around. But they gained media popularity this past year when they welcomed a brood of a couple of chicks in the spring, who eventually grew old enough to fly off on their own.
Their parents stayed behind, becoming permanent and beloved fixtures by patients, hospital staff, and the nearby community.
Alameda Health System, which oversees the hospital, decided to formally accept the new members of the family this summer by putting out a call to the community to vote on a pair of names for the couple.
This came about as staff realized that there were famous birds all over the Bay Area, not just their hawks.
"There are two ospreys in Richmond that folks follow, and then there are the Berkeley falcons and we started to feel a little competitive like, you know, Berkeley has their celebrity birds," said Ajala. "We should have our celebrity birds too. So we decided to name them."
"Your responses were impressive," said a statement from Alameda last week. "You sent in funny names, historic names, thoughtful names and cute names."
The top three names were chosen last Wednesday, and were: Hawkeye and Houlihan, Stormy and Sunny, and Antonio and Bella. Hospital staff were then slated to vote on the top three.
Hawkeye and Houlihan were chosen as a reference to the hit TV show "M*A*S*H," and Antonio and Bella were a reference to the neighborhoods around the bird's nesting area, San Antonio and Bella Vista, according to Ajala.
Then 290 staffers voted, with 126 votes for Stormy and Sunny, a close second at 117 for Hawkeye and Houlihan. Antonio and Bella came in third with 47.
"We are delighted that hundreds of Alameda Health System staff members, patients, and neighbors from the broader community all pitched in to help us name the pair of hawks who live on the Wilma Chan Highland Hospital Campus," said Ajala. "Stormy and Sunny are beloved fixtures of the neighborhood, and we hope they stick around for many years to come."
Now, hospital staff are toying with the idea of setting up a hawk cam, but they're not quite there yet, said Ajala.
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