Scott,

I had a look at the Red-shouldered Hawk photo, but don't have reference
books handy. The bird certainly doesn't have the feel of a Red-tail.
The pale face in the dark head seems very unlike a Red-tail and the
picture that shows the upper surface of the tail relatively clearly sure
looks more like a Red-shouldered than anything else that comes to mind.
The head and bill of the first photo seem quite dainty, also, and the
tail extends well beyond the folded wingtips. The best back shot seems
to indicate there's a lot of rufous on the shoulder and tertials, but can
I trust my monitor's color? It is still puzzling why it didn't appear
obviously smaller and longer-tailed in flight re. a Red-tail. In my
experience the gestalts are very different in flight.

Gene Hunn.

On Thu, 1 Feb 1996, Scott Ray wrote:

> Photos of the recent Brown Thrasher from Rearden and the Red-shouldered Hawk
> from McNary NWR can be found at the following address.
>
> http://www.wolfe.net/~scottr/rarebirds/
>
> Lots of other neat "rarities" too!
>
> Scott
>
> _______________________________________________________________
> Scott Ray Washington Birder Newsletter
> Yakima, WA PO Box 191
> email: scray at wolfenet.com Moxee, WA 98908
> http://www.wolfenet.com/~scray/
> _______________________________________________________________
>
>