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Clayton
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 Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 3:10 am Post subject: Need Help With A Hawk ID |
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Made a trip to the S/W Louisiana coast this morning. Very little in the way
of birds out, but a beautiful day for a drive. Coming back I saw a fair
sized hawk perched on a fence post with it's attention fixed in the grass at
the edge of a finger of the marsh. The angle he was facing and the wind
really ruffling his feathers make a positive ID very hard for me. Traffic
prevented me from stopping and trying to get a better look.
The single most prominent feature to note was a lot of white feathers on the
head. With the wind blowing, I couldn't tell what he would look like in a
"normal" perch there. Size, overall coloration and the white head leads me
to a juvenile Swainson's Hawk. For the last couple of hours I've been
searching my references and the web for anything to convince me that's
right. I'm not sure of their abundance or rarity here to help with my
decision.
Does anybody have any alternatives?
--
Clayton
30d 28' 50.97" N
92d 50' 29.90" W |
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Eric Miller
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| Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 3:47 am Post subject: Re: Need Help With A Hawk ID |
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"Clayton" <cen49058@centurytel.net> wrote in message
news:r6GdncXMsIX-sr7UnZ2dnUVZ_gidnZ2d@centurytel.net...
| Quote: | Made a trip to the S/W Louisiana coast this morning. Very little in the
way
of birds out, but a beautiful day for a drive. Coming back I saw a fair
sized hawk perched on a fence post with it's attention fixed in the grass
at
the edge of a finger of the marsh. The angle he was facing and the wind
really ruffling his feathers make a positive ID very hard for me. Traffic
prevented me from stopping and trying to get a better look.
The single most prominent feature to note was a lot of white feathers on
the
head. With the wind blowing, I couldn't tell what he would look like in a
"normal" perch there. Size, overall coloration and the white head leads
me
to a juvenile Swainson's Hawk. For the last couple of hours I've been
searching my references and the web for anything to convince me that's
right. I'm not sure of their abundance or rarity here to help with my
decision.
Does anybody have any alternatives?
--
|
Unfortunately your description doesn't offer much. You may have excluded a
Redtailed Hawk for reasons that you did not mention, but they can have
plenty of white on the head. Here is an example of a Redtailed Hawk with an
all-white head photographed in Louisiana:
http://www.dyesscreek.com/miscellaneous_pages/kriders.html
The S/W Louisiana coast, to me, means the Cameron/Holly Beach/Johnson's
Bayou area. I fish in that area regularly and often see Ospreys. That is
probably the first bird I would consider for a "hawk with white on the head"
description in that area. Of course, they are fairly large birds. My second
expectation would be a Redtail.
The Cornell site shows Southwest Louisiana as out of the range of Swainson's
Hawks. Patuxent MWSC shows one bird as having been reported in that area on
their CBC map, so it appears that Swainson's is a possibility though it
appears to be only rarely seen there.
Eric Miller
www.dyesscreek.com |
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Clayton
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 4:47 am Post subject: Re: Need Help With A Hawk ID |
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Thanks. None of what I could find showed one with that white head. Way
more likely it's a Red.
--
Clayton
30d 28' 50.97" N
92d 50' 29.90" W
"Eric Miller" <millerericnospam@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:BFGUk.61613$XT1.26406@bignews5.bellsouth.net...
"Clayton" <cen49058@centurytel.net> wrote in message
news:r6GdncXMsIX-sr7UnZ2dnUVZ_gidnZ2d@centurytel.net...
| Quote: | Made a trip to the S/W Louisiana coast this morning. Very little in the
way
of birds out, but a beautiful day for a drive. Coming back I saw a fair
sized hawk perched on a fence post with it's attention fixed in the grass
at
the edge of a finger of the marsh. The angle he was facing and the wind
really ruffling his feathers make a positive ID very hard for me. Traffic
prevented me from stopping and trying to get a better look.
The single most prominent feature to note was a lot of white feathers on
the
head. With the wind blowing, I couldn't tell what he would look like in a
"normal" perch there. Size, overall coloration and the white head leads
me
to a juvenile Swainson's Hawk. For the last couple of hours I've been
searching my references and the web for anything to convince me that's
right. I'm not sure of their abundance or rarity here to help with my
decision.
Does anybody have any alternatives?
--
|
Unfortunately your description doesn't offer much. You may have excluded a
Redtailed Hawk for reasons that you did not mention, but they can have
plenty of white on the head. Here is an example of a Redtailed Hawk with an
all-white head photographed in Louisiana:
http://www.dyesscreek.com/miscellaneous_pages/kriders.html
The S/W Louisiana coast, to me, means the Cameron/Holly Beach/Johnson's
Bayou area. I fish in that area regularly and often see Ospreys. That is
probably the first bird I would consider for a "hawk with white on the head"
description in that area. Of course, they are fairly large birds. My second
expectation would be a Redtail.
The Cornell site shows Southwest Louisiana as out of the range of Swainson's
Hawks. Patuxent MWSC shows one bird as having been reported in that area on
their CBC map, so it appears that Swainson's is a possibility though it
appears to be only rarely seen there.
Eric Miller
www.dyesscreek.com |
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