Yesterday mid-morning I saw a strange raptor across the Mississippi River from the trail at Hardman and Grand Aves. in South St. Paul. It was perched in a fairly small tree (compared to the larger tree on the right of it--from my perpspective) across the river almost straight ahead as you stand facing the river (if you drew a line between where I stood and the bird, the line would be almost perpendicular to the trail itself).
My optics weren't good enough to get a positive id. My initial reaction was that it was a Red-shouldered Hawk because the front was clearly all rust. However, there was a darker band of warm brown across its upper breast. I've seen Swainson's in flight overhead several times, but I haven't seen them perched. The front of this bird really looked like the "intermediate" Swainson's in the National Geo. and Sibley field guides. Today I spoke with another birder who had been to this same area this a.m. and he saw a strange raptor, also. This time it flew low and followed the Mississippi. It was out of sight before he could get a good id, but he could tell it had a substantial wing span. If anyone can get a good id on this bird, I'd appreciate a confirmation. Thanks, Molly Jo Miller Inver Grove Hts, Dakota Co -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://moumn.org/pipermail/mou-net_moumn.org/attachments/20080405/bc6418a8/attachment.html
