[texbirds] Possible Roadside Hawk details
- From: Peter Barnes <pbarnes123@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 15 Dec 2013 19:23:33 -0600
This morning, Ross Rickett, Janet Cook and I observed what we believe was a
Roadside Hawk at Santa Ana NWR. As you walk from the Visitor Center to Pintail
Lake, you first see a large open area that is the lake bed of Pintail Lake
(labeled 6 and 3 on the Santa Ana NWR map). The bird was perched in the far
tree line, 2-300 yards away. Viewing it through a scope, it was clearly a small
buteo, smaller than a Red-tailed or Red-shouldered. To me, it had a somewhat
dumpy appearance with a tail that was proportionately slightly longer than on a
Red-tailed Hawk. The head was completely gray, and this extended to the upper
breast. One observer thought that the upper breast may have been rufous rather
than gray. The mid and lower breast were rufous with thin white horizontal
bars. We saw the lateral side of the wing, which appeared plain and unspotted,
although the color was uncertain. There was a prominent pale area around the
eye, but it was too distant to tell if this was bare skin or to tell its color.
We did not see any distinctive features on the tail. We made the tentative ID
and wrote this description before consulting any other sources of information.
While we were trying to get a photo of the bird with an iPhone on the scope, it
flew off. I foolishly did not keep an eye on it and did not get a view in
flight. We could not relocate the bird for the next hour.
We realize that the information above is not sufficient to make a definitive ID
of a bird as rare as Roadside Hawk, so we hope that other birders will check
out Pintail Lake and see if it can be relocated.
Peter Barnes
Tyler
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- » [texbirds] Possible Roadside Hawk details - Peter Barnes
