The light was finally favorable this evening, to scope the two power-line
towers, ESE of the house. I’ve been waiting for the Harlan’s to appear there,
where it has been a cold-weather fixture in recent years. This evening, I
immediately spotted a large and dark hawk, on the northern of the two towers.
It was crouched and looking aggressive and, seconds after I spotted it, it took
off and briefly grappled with a “regular” Red-tail that popped into my scope
view. They jousted in the air, several more times, giving me really good looks
at both, in the low-angle sun, before the Harlan’s headed for the the other
tower, 1/4 mile to the south. I have often seen another Red-tail on that
northern tower, this fall. I’m hoping they can coexist.
I looked back through my notes and first found a reference to an oddly-dark
buteo on the same tower (as in this photo) in November 2013, though we didn’t
identify it until two years ago.
If this is the same bird, and it is summering in the Yukon or Alaska (which is
what my reference books suggest), it has made six, roughly-7000 mile
roundtrips, since we first spotted it. That’s 42,000 miles, if math is still
done the way it used to be.
This photo was digi-scoped, from the yard, at about 1.6 miles.
https://flic.kr/p/2hDPapK
Stephen Tyson, Schochoh, Logan Co.
