The last time a Harris's Hawk in the area was mentioned on FB (that I can
see), it was mentioned that Mike Jones with the UT vet school was a
falconer who worked with them. You might want to check with him as well.
On Wed, Oct 2, 2019 at 6:33 PM shaawitya <shaawitya@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
This morning, 10/2/19, a friend texted a photo to me of a Harris's Hawk
she had just seen on Old Newport Highway in the Fairgarden community of
east Sevier County. She and a companion were out looking for Red-tailed
Hawks in a known location and observed the Harris's Hawk perched on a
utility wire. She took a photo with her cell phone and sent it to me.
Harris's Hawk has been reported in east Sevier County several times since
2017 but mostly from January to March. A few low quality photos have been
made, good enough to ID the hawk as Harris's and that it did not have
jesses.
I contacted a local company that uses hawks for "pest" bird abatement and
they are not missing any hawks. The American Eagle Foundation (AEF) here in
Sevierville also has Harris's Hawk but I have not contacted them. The
observer of the hawk today is or was an employee of AEF and I assumed she
would have not reported to me unless she thought this was possibly a wild
hawk.
A few folks will go out in the morning to look for the hawk. If others go,
please be courteous and safe. This is a busy highway with little or no room
to pull off in most places.
Some of you may get an ebird report of this bird, but not under my name. I
used another account that I used to document Common Merganser sightings
from folks who sent me photos but are not birders. But the report was made
by me on behalf of the observer.
If the bird is relocated, I will submit a short report to Tn-bird, ebird,
and Facebook.
Keith Watson
Pittman Center TN
Keith Watson
Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
