[Bristol-Birds] Re: Sharp-shinned Size Illustration

Beautiful bird, Roger.  You're really lucky to have him show up so frequently.  
I've always been amazed at the small size of a male Sharp-shinned Hawk.  In 
around 30 years of birding I'll bet I have not seen a half-dozen adult male 
sharpies.  Maybe it's just me, but it seems the males are much more secretive 
and hard to get a look at than the females.

Rick

Rick Phillips
Kingsport, Tennessee
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Mayhorn 
  To: Bristol Birds 
  Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2006 1:07 AM
  Subject: [Bristol-Birds] Sharp-shinned Size Illustration


  Area Birders,
  Unfortunately yesterday our small resident male Sharp-shinned was chasing a 
bird and flew into our glass, dining room door, even though we have large 
stickers on the glass to prevent this from happening. Fortunately he only had 
the breath knocked out of him and came to rest on our back steps. While he was 
recovering I sneaked  a photo with a telephoto lens from the corner of the of 
the house. From this photo you can get a good idea of how small a male Sharpie 
really is. After he recovered and flew into the woods, I measured the step, and 
from front to back it measured 9 1/2 inches. The bird appears to be about the 
same length. You can see the photo at http://www.pbase.com/mayhorn/new_birds
  In the wild these guys don't appear to be quite that small. Next to this 
photo is another I took a couple of days before of the same bird perched in a 
tree (I'm pretty sure its the same bird, since it has been a regular in the 
yard for sometime now. This bird has more white on its left side than its 
right.) I think it looks much smaller on the step than in the tree.

  Enjoy the birds,

  Roger Mayhorn
  Compton Mt (near Grundy)
  Buchanan County

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