Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 13:08:56 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Janet Millenson Subject: Raptor ID suggestions needed MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Yet again, my sister-in-law has called me with a bird question. If you can help, please e-mail me directly, off-list. The other day a "very large, dove-colored hawk" swooped down and snatched a little bird from their feeder, flying away with it. They didn't get a good look, but insist that it was NOT brownish or reddish but more of a uniform gray color than anything else. It was at least as big as a crow. (They say it wasn't an owl either.) This took place in mid-morning, in a wooded New Jersey suburb about 40 miles west of New York, where the resident raptors should be pretty similar to ours. A large, grayish raptor preying on birds? Merlins are too small, harriers don't go after birds, and it sure as heck wasn't a goshawk or a gyr (if it was, you heard it here first!). And isn't it too early in the season for immature raptors to be out hunting independently? My guess is that they saw the gray back of a female Cooper's hawk as it flew away, and it looked "huge" compared to whatever it had grabbed. Other suggestions are welcome! Janet Millenson Potomac, MD janet@twocrows.com ------------------------------------------------------------------ "Look at the birds!" -- Pascal the parrot ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================