Shortly before noon on Tuesday, Miyoko Chu and I saw a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK above the Wilson Trail North in Sapsucker Woods, near the Sherwood Platform. The very presence of the hawk was a nice surprise given the somewhat atypical location. What's more, the bird graced us for more than thirty seconds with a sequence of circles and rapid glides, directly overhead.
I would call this bird a dark morph because of the solidity of color of its head, body, and wing linings, but against the gray sky these parts appeared notably warm brown, except for the round black carpal patches, like an Old World buzzard or kite. The tail had a white base and fine alternating white and black bars above the dark terminal band. Seeing this rufous buteo made me wonder whether the Red-shouldered Hawk is back in Sapsucker Woods this winter. I looked in eBird and found a credible report from December 17, 2010. Welcome back, hawk! Also, I heard from Mary Winston that one Pine Siskin visited the feeder garden this morning. (The most recent Sapsucker Woods siskin report in eBird is from November 10.) The EASTERN SCREECH-OWL continues to roost regularly in our nest box on Simsbury Drive. In past years, the owl has reliably appeared the hole of the box every day for an hour or more before dusk, and also somewhat often at other times throughout the day in all weather. In contrast, this year the owl tends to appear only for a few minutes at first light, bask by day only in very sunny weather, and otherwise rest in the box unseen past nightfall. The owl also sometimes has an unfamiliar demeanor when it does appear. Most notably, the owl tends to bask, asleep, with its head bowed far forward, like an overworked student resting his forehead on an open textbook. Given all this, I speculate that that this owl is different from the one here in 2007-09, or if the same, it has become more retiring with age. Comparison of photos is inconclusive. Mark Chao -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
