Thanks Christian! I figured you would know... I thought the hawk might be a red-shouldered, but several details didn't seem to match my book. One detail that may help - he has white on the top side of the tail feathers, though that doesn't show up in any of the vaguely-in-focus shots I have. The wildlife refuge is a typical series of large ponds separated by dikes, there is a 10-mile loop road and a few side roads that give access to the ponds. There is a 1/2 mile stretch of dike closed to traffic but open to hikers, with a rickety old observation tower at the end of the path - that is where I saw the hawk. I was looking for eagles and when I first glimpsed it from a distance I thought it was an eagle, with the white tail, but when it came closer the size made it obvious that it was a hawk. Maybe slightly smaller than a red- tailed hawk. (Last time I was there, last fall, we saw 6-7 eagles working over a snow goose carcass. One left the party, flew near us as we watched from the observation tower. I was thinking about watching the bird rather than taking photos, only got one slightly- out-of-focus shot as he flew by.)
stan On Nov 12, 2007, at 6:38 AM, Christian wrote: > Stan Halpin wrote: >> My wife and I made one of our occasional trips to the Squaw Creek >> National Conservation Area, about 1.5 hours north of our home. >> Currently hosting about 150,000 wildfowl including various eagles, >> hawks, and various ducks, geese, and other waterbirds. >> >> I am not pleased with my "take" for the day. This GESO has a couple >> of decent shots. I am primarily posting it in hopes that one of you >> can help identify two different duck species and one hawk. >> >> http://photos.stanhalpin.com/p47799857/ >> >> stan >> >> > > The first duck is a black scoter, the second "duck" is a pied-billed > grebe. The hawk is hard to identify with the shots as presented. I > could make some guesses, but I have no idea how big it is. First > guess > is a red-shouldered hawk. > > Looks like the birds were pretty far away. Is there easy access there > to get closer? > > -- > > Christian > http://photography.skofteland.net > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above > and follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
