Right now I have what I presume to be a juvenile Northern Harrier just over the back fence, about 15 feet from the kitchen window. S/he first took a small, dark bird from the crew under the bird feeders, and proceeded to demonstrate table manners in the neighbor's yard. I intend to go over in a little while and see if I can identify the victim: I suspect Junco, which isn't a very large lunch for this bird.
I say 'presume' because I am fairly new to the business of identifying the various hawks within my range. This bird is NOT the 26" suggested by Peterson but would fit the 21" of Sibley. The white 'eyebrow' is a little faint. The tail stripes are DEFINITELY irregular! The 'shoulder' area of wings is certainly 'speckled', though I would sooner say spotted, with the understanding that spots are larger than speckles. One of the yard squirrels was cheeky enough to climb the tree and approach VERY near the hawk. Perhaps some words were spoken, but the mammal was clearly not at all nervous around the bird, who actually raised a wing as if about to fly. I feel inclined to eat a little crow here, since it is entirely possible that it was this bird whom I reported as a Cooper's Hawk several weeks ago. In my defense, that bird was much farther from my binoculars, and therefore harder to pin down, let alone gauge size. ellie -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
