On Sun, 23 Jul 1995, Don Baccus wrote:

> Well, if it's a harrier either it's an immy male with an exceptionally
> yellow eye (assuming the description is correct), or an adult male.
> If the latter, I'd assume the original poster would've made our
> task easier by describing the bird as grey.
>

I had 10 - 15 minutes to examine it. The eyes were definitely yellow,
and the bird definitely was not grey.

I've studied some other references since then, and I'm pretty well
convinced it was a RT hawk. Everything fits except the peculiar marking
around the head, which is what confused me. The ring I described basically
encircled the face - it was more like concentric white and brown rings. I
have found no illustrations of immature RT hawks that come close to what I
saw, in that regard, but the general shape (especially of the head) fits.
The general shape of the head does not fit at all some of the other
possibilities mentioned (Northern Harrier, Coopers hawk).

>
> I think we've got a case of an inexperienced person concentrating
> on the wrong parts of the bird, and not noting the points that
> would allow us to make a definite ID.
>

Probably true. I would be interested in some positive suggestions of what
I should have concentrated on. I had all the time in the word to
examine it - it just sat there and watched me, and I tried to note
everything I could about the bird that I could. It's hard to "reproduce"
the picture of the bird over e-mail.

I'm a bit embarrassed about the discussion my original post has caused. I
hesitated post it, but I thought that (1) it might be of general interest
to people and (2) I'm interested in becoming more experienced and the
insight of more experienced people is always helpful. Should I have not
made the original post since I'm not experienced? This is an honest
question - not a rhetorical one.

What I would've given for a camera...

Jim Lady