Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 16:05:31 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Toni & Bob Hartman Subject: Mostly hawks - need ID help MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Toni and I didn't get out this AM until the wind had already become ferocious, so we did our birding from the car. Apparently the birds didn't like the wind either, at least the small ones. Here are the highlights, with an ID question at the end: 3 im Rs Hawks, Park Mill Rd at Bear Branch 1 im Rt Hawk, Cap Stine Rd 4-6 Black Vultures, Cap Stine Rd 2 Am Kestrels, Oland Rd, Mountville Rd 1 (possible) Peregrine Falcon - on Lily Pons Rd e of MD 85 - flew over the car, low and !very! fast. Couldn't see markings, but color dk gray over white, size about the same as the hundreds of crows in the same area. 1 more hawk at Lily Pons, about the size of a Red-shouldered, with appropriate tail and wing banding. However, this bird had a rich !buff! throat and breast. The lower back was a light gray. That part looked like the Sibley picture of the S. Florida (extimus) race (the NatGeo picture is much more rufous). However, the bird we saw did not have the light gray head and upper back of the extimus; the head was dark brown, slightly reddish, and the upper back was medium brown. The bird was too far away to get a really good look - couldn't tell whether it really had red shoulders, and couldn't see whether the buff on the breast was in bands. We're thinking this might be a cross between the extimus and the local (lineatus) race, but would appreciate some expert input. We went out there hoping to find the flock of Horned Larks, and maybe some longspurs, but struck out on both of those. Bob Hartman Colesville, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================