[TN-Bird] Ferruginous Hawk - Tunica Co. MS

Dec. 30, 2005
Tunica Co. MS
 
I've check this area about 4 times in the last two weeks hoping to find the  
Ferruginous off Buck Island Road. I've also check the area near Hot Thornton  
Road to the south where we had another after the first bird disappeared.
 
Exactly 364 days from the day I found my first Ferruginous Hawk in MS off  
buck Island Road, I found another or the same bird returning today, about 5  
miles southeast of Buck Island off Arkabutla Dam Road. The bird was flushed 
from  
a telephone pole about 1 mile east of Highway 3. I saw the bird just before 
it  flushed sitting very straight up and it was light and big.
 
I was pretty sure of the ID as the bird flew straight south into the bright  
cloudy sky. The wing shape was very distinctive along with white at the base 
of  just the primaries and not running up on the coverts. I could not see the 
tail  well enough before it disappeared at the west tree line. I called Gene  
Knight to let him know the location and then sat waiting to see if the bird  
returned. There were hunters in the field to the north of the road and an empty 
 
blind to the south where the bird flew.
 
Ducks and Geese absolutely covered the ground and there were 2 adult and 1  
immature red-tailed Hawks sitting on the rice levees. I was watching two of the 
 Red-tails scuffling over a carcass when in swept the Ferruginous and I got  
excellent looks again of the wings and head. This bird was very obviously  
larger to me and evidently the two Red-tails as they gave up their bird and  
high 
tailed it. Unfortunately the Ferruginous started to feed just over a  rice 
levee and all I could see was the birds head. The only photos I got were  back 
lit and of just the head sticking above the low bank. The head was pale,  
streaked dark. The bird is a light morph female I believe, but I never got a  
good 
look at the tail or back.
 
Traveling on Highway 3, take Arkabutla Dam Road east. After passing over  the 
railroad tracks and passing the farm houses and grain bins, travel past the  
next tree line and the bird was last seen on the south side of the road.
 
 
Good Birding  !!!
Jeff R. Wilson / TLBA
6298 Memphis-Arlington Road
Bartlett, TN  38135


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