Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2003 17:54:17 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Richard McGuinness Subject: What kind of hawk at the Tidal Basin? This is my first message to this list so I hope it comes out right. I've been birding for about a year and a half and love it. I live in MD, work on the Mall in DC and was at the Tidal Basin yesterday and today at lunchtime, when I saw most of the waterfowl reported here, including, yesterday, a pair of redheads near the bridge. Today, after making a circuit of the water, I saw a fat hawk in the trees right next to the Jefferson Memorial (to the east). After a couple of minutes, it flew to ground where it took its time dismantling a small animal. As usual, I had trouble identifying this raptor and am wondering if anyone else has seen a bird like the following hanging around that area (description may be off because of lighting, etc.) and can share their expertise about this creature. 17-20 inches yellow eyes dark hooked bill dark brown feathers on back and on head occasional white intermingled with brown back and head feathers dark brown tail feathers with rather small dark tail bands light colored chest feathers graduating to dark brown below and to the sides light-colored bloomers light vertical stripe over the eye and light stripe extending from bill By process of elimination, I don't think it was a kite, an eagle, a falcon (eyes wrong shape and wrong proportion to the head), a harrier, or an osprey. Searching through Sibley, I think possibilities at this time of year in our area are a first year juvenile red-shouldered hawk (due to the coloring, streaking, lighter eyes, and finer tail bands) or, similarly, a light juvenile red-tailed hawk (again with finer tail bands). Download NeoPlanet at http://www.neoplanet.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================