Dennis Paulson:

>Tweeters, watch for a Rough-legged Hawk on the UW campus. It has been seen
>around Kincaid Hall and elsewhere, chasing pigeons(!), for more than a
>month; an odd habitat and an odd prey choice for this species. I'd be
>interested in any information about its sex and/or age that people can
>determine.

A most unusual prey choice! In the Goshute mountains of Nevada, where
I band raptors, we've trapped a bald eagle on a pigeon, and three
Swainson's hawks on pigeons ("my, what a big cricket!"), but we've
never had a rough-legged even stoop one.

When we do trap odd-ball buteos (including broad-wings) with our accipiter-
oriented set-up, they are invariably kids. Most redtails which we
trap are also kids (HY), and usually emaciated, probably a fairly
typical state for immy redtails in September/October. I was around for
two of the three Swainsons we've banded (out of over 25,000 of all
species, not exactly a high percentage) and, interestingly, these two
HY birds were FAT.

-Don Baccus-