Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2003 16:17:39 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Frank Powers Subject: Re: Mall birds, 3/12 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit A huge bird was in the top of a tree on the south side of the Capitol lawn right next to Independence Avenue (opposite of the Rayburn House Office Building entrance). It was strafed by a couple of Blue Jays, but just seemed to ignore them, and remained perched for at least half an hour (between 2-2:30pm -- it was still there when I left). Unfortunately, I did not have binoculars with me, but it seemed larger than a Red-tailed Hawk, and no red on its tail was discernible. Its back was a dirty brown, streaked with some white. It's head, when it turned it from time to time, seemed more white than not, with brownish steaks through it. When I passed to the other side, and tried looking at it into the sun (ever notice what a crowd you can gather outside of the Capital, cranning your neck and shielding your eyes as you look high in the sky?). All I could see of its chest was that it was overall whitish, with darker streaks. Sure didn't seem to be a Red-shouldered Hawk. Some guessed Osprey, but I don't know. Was anyone on the list at the mall about that time and see (with binoculars, hopefully) this creature? Frank Powers Glen Echo, MD Montgomery County ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================