THU 16 DEC 2004 Washington Co., TN D. Holt Around noon today I saw a white bird amongst a loose kettle of mixed birds over the Keebler Rd. area, approximately. I was over a mile away, to the south I think. I set up a 20X scope, and was able to see that it was a buteo. It reached the top of the kettle and glided southwest, then dived steeply and landed in a tree near Snapps Bridge, maybe a half mile away from me. I got a 60X scope on it and saw that it was sitting a couple of feet away from a normal plumaged Red-tailed Hawk. They sat together without incident for several minutes, then the white one flew a little upriver, seeming to land in a densely branched tree where I could not see it. I drove down to Snapps Bridge and walked around looking for it along the river, but without luck. The bird's plumage, as far as I could tell, seemed to be totally pure, bright white from all angles, though distance would have obscured any subtle marks or colorings. I could not determine eye, beak or leg color. Don Miller tells me there has been a mostly white Red-tailed Hawk with a normal red tail known in the Snapps Bridge area for a few years now. I think this was a different individual. After leaving Snapps Bridge, I went to Keebler Rd. and found a Peregrine Falcon again, this time on the east side of Keebler Rd., in a lone tree on the skyline. I watched for a quarter-hour or so before it flew down and disappeared behind the knoll. While there, I also saw an adult male Northern Harrier harrass a passing Red-tailed Hawk. Don Holt Johnson City, TN ************************************************* BRISTOL BIRDS NET LIST Bristol Birds Net Photo Gallery located at: http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jwcoffeyy/album?.dir=/efd5 This is a regional birding list sponsored by the Bristol Bird Club to facilitate communications between birders and bird clubs of Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee. -------------------------------------------------- You are subscribed to Bristol-Birds. To post to this mailing list, simply send an email to: bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe, send an email to bristol-birds-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the one word 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. -------------------------------------------------- Wallace Coffey, Moderator wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (423)764-****