A dark phase Rough-legged Hawk is at the intersection of MN State Highways 13 and 77. The bird often sits on the tall lightpoles in the cloverleaf. It also uses the trees along 13 and sometimes sits on the snow.
This may be a young bird, the eyes looked pale yellow. The upper tail surface at the rump was dark, as was the trailing edge of the wing. The hawk was loafing on a pole at 10 AM and very active from 12:30 to 1 PM, when we left. Of course the big show started just after the group Anne and I were leading for MRVAC and the MN Valley National Wildlife Refuge broke up. The hawk hovered almost 100 feet overhead of us, pointing it's head straight down and extending it's legs. Once again my camera was nice and warm, at home. Depending on lighting direction and what quadrant of the intersection the hawk is in, good viewing can be had from: the high ground along Sibley Court west of Old Sibley Memorial Hwy.; near the U-Haul dealer at Nicols Rd. and Cedarview Dr.; or the Goodyear dealer at Nicols Rd., south of Silver Bell Rd. George Skinner and Anne Hanley Minnetonka, Hennepin Co. ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
