This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_0004_01BEDB50.56548980 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable This morning (Saturday) at around 9 at Hughes Hollow in Montgomery = County, MD a group of us saw a bird that was very likely either a = Mississippi Kite or a Peregrine Falcon. I hope that after reading this = description some of you may have some input as to what it is we saw. I spotted it flapping and gliding a good distance away and my first = impression was that it was a gull- curved wings and a slow graceful = flapping. When I got my binoculars on the bird I couldn't pick up much = color due to the light, but it was a 'darkish' bird and definitely not a = gull. It had a flap-flap-flap-glide pattern like an Accipiter, but its = wingbeats were too slow and its wings were pointed, ruling out that = family. It was too big to have been a kestrel, and I think it's too = early for it to have been a merlin. Unfortunately I could not make out = any color on the bird. I know that pergrines breed in the area = (although I haven't heard of any being seen in this neck of the woods) = and there have been plenty of reports of mississippi kites lately. After some thought, I had assured myself that it was a kite, but = after consulting with my most helpful 'research assistant', Howard Y., I = began to lean more towards peregrine. I know this isn't much to go on, = but plenty of you have seen more kites and falcons than I and might be = able to identify what we saw based on the above information. Either = way, it was a great find for an otherwise slow and hot morning. Andy Rabin Gaithersburg, MD andyrab@wam.umd.edu ------=_NextPart_000_0004_01BEDB50.56548980 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN">