FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] RPT: Rough-legged Hawk!

[Brainard.Palmer-Ball@xxxxxx]

I was revising the stops for a Breeding Bird Survey route in eastern Greenup
County (Ashland area, northeastern KY) yesterday and couldn't believe my
eyes ... several years ago when Steve Sweeney had Black-capped Chickadees at
his feeders nearby on Daniels Fork Road, he had told us about a reclaimed
surface mine area where he'd seen Short-eared Owls just a coule of miles
from his home. The BBS route I was setting up goes right by this mined area.
I had stopped to record the coordinates for a planned stop on the edge of
the mine when I looked down the road and a raptor took off from a roadside
fence post. I couldn't believe it but it was a Rough-legged Hawk! My mind
did a stutter-step and I said to myself ... what the heck time of year is
it? I thought springtime for a second in a fog of contradictory signals
(sweat and thunderstorm clouds rumbling in the distance combined with that
of a soaring RLHA!) and then realized ... HEY, it's JUNE! 

I first thought the bird was an adult, but after looking at Sibley and
Wheeler last night, I actually think it is a first-year (late juv) dark or
"darkish" morph bird that is a bit faded in plumage after wearing it for
nearly a year now ... which makes more sense than an adult. It lifted off
the pole, soared way up into the sky to the northwest, being harrassed first
by a Red-winged Blackbird, then an Eastern Kingbird. Then it floated back
towards me to the southeast and I left it lazily soaring a few times higher
than treetops near where it lifted off from the post. One reason why I think
it is a young bird is that it is molting its inner primaries, which would
seem to match molt sequence for a first-year best. Unfortunately no camera
was in my possession to document the event.

If anyone is in this area, they might keep an eye out to see if my
observation was happenstance or if this bird is summering for some reason??
It is on DeLorme page 30, block H5; the mine extends into block G5 between
the jct of Happy Ridge Road from the south to Rockhouse Fork Road to the
east.

Other birds encountered on the mine yesterday included at least 6 singing
Grasshopper Sparrows and a Dickcissel. Also along the path of this and
another route thru Carter/Elliott counties were at least 8 singing American
Redstarts and 13 other species of warblers including a couple of
Blue-wingeds. Not one Cerulean, unfortunately :o(

bpb, Louisville
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