I decided not to take my pocket-size binocs today because of the rainy forecast.  Halfway to my Hyattsville (PG Co.)bus stop at 9 am I spot a bird I REALLY need a closer look at.  

If the scene had been in black and white I would have said Red-Tailed Hawk without question, based on size and wing shape and the fact that it was soaring in lazy circles over suburban streets.   It wasn't a black and white image, of course, but the bird seemed to be a uniform white or very light gray with no markings I could see with the naked eye.  There was complete cloud cover, so no sun glare, and the bird was flying fairly low.  The local crowd of starlings, house sparrows, mockingbirds, cardinals, and gray squirrels topok asbsolutely no notice of the raptor.  Another odd thing about the bird was that it was missing one or two central tail feathers leaving a big gap.

I have seen very pale Red-Tails but nowhere near this pale and never without any markings.  Did I see an extremely leucistic Red-Tailed (or Red-Shouldered)?  Was I looking at a completely different raptor species altogether?  I don't want to even pose a guess.

Any help would be appreciated.  The bird was making it's way north towards College Park, so if anyone else saw it this morning, let me know.

Beth Kantrowitz
Hyattsville, MD