I was walking through the SERC woods at lunch. It was mostly a walk as
the wind made it hard to see treetop birds. I had just exited the woods
onto the boardwalk to Hog Island around 12:30 when I spied a kettle of
Black and Turkey Vultures flying over the woods on the opposite side of
Muddy Creek. I put my bins on them and one of them looked odd. Then it
started to flutter flap! It wasn't a vulture at all but an all dark
buteo! I leaned my butt onto the railing to get a more stable view and
watched it soar, unfortunately moving south along the tree line. It
disappeared around the trees of Hog Island so I ran across the island to
the fish weir on the other side but all of the vultures and the buteo
were gone.

The underwing looked quite like a Turkey Vulture which is what threw me
at first: black underwing linings and paler primaries and secondaries.
There appeared to be a dark terminal band on the tail and paler
rectrices between the vent and the terminal band. My best guess on this
is a Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk. The wing shape didn't look right for a
Swainson's Hawk.

I sure hope that Sue Ricciardi's hawk counters saw this bird or that
someone else down south of here does, too!

Tyler Bell

Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
Edgewater, MD