Dan Victor <dvictor at u.washington.edu> Seattle, WA

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 7 Dec 94 13:24:47 -0800
To: dvictor at u.washington.edu

i have been standing in the stairwell for the past 15 minutes
watching the rough legged hawk that is currently perched on
the light pole overlooking the bridge that extends between
kincaid and hitchcock. she looks quite casual; preening and
warming alternate feet by pulling them up into her feathers.

description: definately a brown colored bird with a cream
colored breast, a dark brown band across her abdomen, some
pale brown streaking near the band, long cream-colored tail
with numerous thin brown bands and a pale cream-colored
terminal band, a blue beak, and a white spot on the back
of the head (due to a missing feather).

the bird just flew into a tree further down the trail so i
got a good look at the wings...dark black-brown primaries
and brown back. this bird is probably a male, not a female
(sorry...a gender-specific assumption on my part!) due to
size.it certainly looks to be too small for a red-tailed
hawk.

it is really beautiful.

=============

i neglected to mention (in my haste) that, when the bird flew, i
was looking down on him from my own perch. the tail was a dark
black-brown with a "dirty" white base. this base was not as wide
or as bright as i expected it would be. also, the carpal joint
was extremely dark--almost black--next to the pale cream-colored
base of the primaries.

this is definately a rough-legged hawk.