Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 11:53:18 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Steve Huy Subject: Re: Albinism in Hawks and color morph descriptions... MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit "Atlasers keep you eyes open as Red-tailed Hawk nests are very obvious at this time of year." They are very obvious and its good to note their locations so you can find them again when the leaves are out. But be sure to check them now. A red-tail nest this time of year is often a great-horned owl nest. A pair of kestrels has set up territory in my back yard. I first noticed the female investigating my nest box last Friday morning. Prior to that it had been inhabited by starlings who had been moving in nesting material for about two weeks. She entered and stayed for a while. Either sizing it up for nesting or perhaps dining on starling... or both. A male arrived on the scene today to help her defend the yard against a red-tailed hawk that was sitting low in a tree checking out another red-tail sunning in the yard. "Certainly not since I've been associated with DNR (beginning in 1989)! And not that I know of before that. As far as I know there is little conservation, or falconry, based incentive to go through the trouble of captive breeding of Red-tailed Hawks. " I believe this hawk had actually been trapped for a private breeding project. There is next to no interest (some people do try, but none in Maryland) in breeding red-tailed hawks for falconry as they are so common and captive raised young become dangerous as adults. They are too common for it to be a conservation effort. But little is understood about the white coloration. Some people feel that it does not appear until adult plumage. I have also read that it only occurs in juvenile hawks. A white red-tail had been trapped about this time and place to be bred to determine how the coloration would be passed on and document if it would ever molt out. I don't think this hawk survived long enough to breed. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================