There is an article in the NY Times today with pictures.  You will have to go to the web site to take a look.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/12/science/12bird.html?hp
 
Denise Ryan
Washington, DC
 
 
 The New York Times<http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/misc/logoprinter.gif> <http://www.nytimes.com/adx/bin/adx_click.html?type=goto&page=www.nytimes.com/printer-friendly&pos=Position1&camp=foxsearch50a-nyt5&ad=gardenstate-pf&goto=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Efoxsearchlight%2Ecom%2Fgardenstate%2Findex%5Fnyt%2Ehtml> 

________________________________


August 12, 2004


Red-Footed Falcon Makes Its Western Hemisphere Debut

By CORNELIA DEAN

	

 E<http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/dropcap/e.gif> DGARTOWN, Mass., Aug. 11 - E. Vernon Laux was out with a group of birders on Martha's Vineyard on Sunday when he saw what he thought might be a small falcon, an American kestrel. But it did not look right. It did not have any red in its tail, the way those kestrels do, and anyway it was too big. 

Maybe, Mr. Laux recalled thinking, it was a Mississippi kite. That would be unusual, a first for the Vineyard. But the bird's legs were reddish, not yellowish like a kite's, and it was hovering. He had never seen a Mississippi kite hover. 

So Mr. Laux, an ornithologist who has led birding trips all over the world, recruited island friends with telescopes and digital cameras to send images of the bird to Jeremiah Trimble, an expert birder and curatorial assistant at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. When Mr. Trimble arrived at his office on Tuesday, he looked at the photos, consulted his reference materials and left immediately for Martha's Vineyard. Mr. Laux had spotted a red-footed falcon - Falco vespertinus - the first reported in the Western Hemisphere. And now birders from all over are arriving to see it.

On Wednesday afternoon a few dozen were set up with binoculars, telescopes and cameras at the Katama Airfield, a flat expanse of grass serving private planes and sightseeing biplanes. The birders were focusing on a yellow taxiway sign on the other end of a grassy runway where the falcon, a grayish bird with reddish legs, about the size of a long, skinny blue jay, sat munching on a grasshopper.

One of the observers was David Sibley, creator of an encyclopedic series of books on birds, who also heard about the bird on Tuesday. "I found out what the earliest ferry was and came right over," said Mr. Sibley, who lives in Concord, Mass. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing."

Mr. Sibley said the bird was male, just over a year old. "It still has the feathers that have the pattern of juvenile feathers," he said.

Red-footed falcons winter in southern and western Africa and breed in Eastern Europe, principally in Russia, Mr. Laux said. No one can say how the bird got here, but this species is adapted for long-distance flying. It may have come from Africa on trade winds or storm winds, and made its way north from South America. Or it could have come across the North Atlantic from England, Ireland or Iceland, where red-footed falcons have been spotted sporadically in recent years.

"Birds rely on instinct to navigate,'' Mr. Sibley said, "and sometimes it just goes wrong." 

Wayne R. Petersen, chairman of the Massachusetts Avian Records Committee, said the group and its national equivalent, the checklist committee of the American Ornithological Union, would make the formal determination that the bird is indeed what the birders think it is.

"Lots more people who are completely knowledgeable will have an opportunity to weigh in on this," said Mr. Petersen, who observed the bird on Wednesday. He noted, though, that the bird had been extensively photographed and observed by experts and that there did not seem to be any signs it escaped from captivity, something that would invalidate it as a famous first. The red-footed falcon is not much used in falconry because it feeds primarily on insects, he said, and this particular bird is not banded and does not show patterns of feather wear typical of birds that have been caged. 

Mr. Petersen, formerly a field ornithologist for the Massachusetts Audubon Society, works for the Swarovski Birding Community, an organization set up by Swarovski, the Austrian maker of binoculars and telescopes, to encourage birding. 

Later, the birders took a lunch break at Whosie's, the snack bar at the edge of the runway, where Mr. Laux reproached himself for not spotting the bird immediately as a visitor from far out of town.

No, the others told him, he should congratulate himself for picking up on the clues that even experienced birders might have missed - and probably did.

"I might have seen it," said Sally Anderson, one of the birders Mr. Laux recruited as a photographer, who had been birding in the area a few days before. "Lots of birders might have seen it." 

Across the room, another diner, her binoculars around her neck, was talking on her cellphone. "Oh, my God, yes, I saw it!" she exclaimed. "It's awesome."


Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company <http://www.nytco.com/>  | Home <http://www.nytimes.com/>  | Privacy Policy <http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/privacy.html>  | Search <http://query.nytimes.com/search/advanced/>  | Corrections <http://www.nytimes.com/corrections.html>  | RSS <http://www.nytimes.com/rss>  | Help <http://www.nytimes.com/membercenter/sitehelp.html>  | Back to Top 

________________________________

From: Maryland Birds & Birding on behalf of Paul A. Guris
Sent: Tue 8/10/04 8:19 PM
To: 
Subject: [MDOSPREY] Red-footed Falcon in Massachusetts!



It's a bit out of the local territory, but a Red-footed Falcon has been found in
Massachusetts.  For up to date postings on this birding, go to:

    http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/MASS.html

Good luck if you chase it.


-Paul

Paul A. Guris
See Life Paulagics
P.O. Box 161
Green Lane, PA  18054
www.paulagics.com
215-234-6805