Hello everyone, I'm posting this email to keep in touch with MN birding friends, but also ask for thoughts/comments on a photo of a Rough-legged Hawk I observed today. This is the copied email I sent out to wisbirdnet a mintue ago:
I hawkwatched on Lapham Peak tower today for four hours, and had some wonderful sightings!!! Four adult Bald Eagles made and appearance, in addition to 30 Cooper's Hawks! Six Red-shouldered Hawks showed off their beauty, and I was able to get some pretty cool photos! Of the past five days of hawkwatching, today's photos are my favorite. In the gallery, the last 11 photos of this gallery are from today! Enjoy http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/lapham_peak_hawkwatching There was one bird today that I identified as a Rough-legged Hawk. This bird had the carpal patches (dark 'wrist' patches on the underwing), in addition to a pale tail with a dark band(s) on the base of the tail. The overall feel of the bird was Rough-legged Hawk, due to the wings having an more elongated and narrower appearance than a Red-tailed Hawk's wings. The one thing that's throwing me off is that this bird has a completely dark, hooded appearance, and the head contrasts with the pale chest. This is a characteristic of Red-tailed Hawks, and I cannot find any examples of light morph Rough-legged Hawks having a solid dark head like this. My three clearest photos of this bird are in the following links. Comments and thoughts are welcome! http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/122855265 http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/122855267 http://www.pbase.com/birdfedr/image/122855270 Here's the link to the updated Lapham Peak hawk count numbers, in case you're interested: https://www.hawkcount.org/month_summary.php?rsite=702 Canada Goose 535 Great Blue Heron 1 Turkey Vulture 8 Bald Eagle 4 Cooper's Hawk 30 Red-shouldered Hawk 6 Red-tailed Hawk 36 Rough-legged Hawk 1 Sandhill Crane 102 Killdeer 7 Ring-billed Gull X Red-bellied Woodpecker 3 Blue Jay 1 American Crow 35 Black-capped Chickadee 3 White-breasted Nuthatch 1 Eastern Bluebird 2 American Robin 7 European Starling 2 Red-winged Blackbird 52 Common Grackle 162 Brown-headed Cowbird 1 House Finch 4 American Goldfinch 10 Good birdwatching, Erik Bruhnke Waukesha, WI NATURALLY AVIAN - Bird photography and guided bird hikes www.pbase.com/birdfedr [email protected] ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
