>I think all birders who are serious about getting better at identifying
>hawks should get both a hawk id book (either drawings or photos) and
>Dunne's jizz-based book. Having both in your arsenal really helps and
>can make watching the hawks more fun.
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Ray Korpi "Life is a smorgasbord--
>Hm: Portland, OR you decide whether or not you
>Wk: Clark College make yourself sick" --k.d. lang
> Vancouver, WA (the more accurate transcription)
>rkorpi at clark.edu
>
>
For what is worth, we have used and appreciated Dunne's "Hawks in Flight"
since it came out. During the 80's and early 90's, we would see most of the
western hawks in a time frame of just over a few weeks durng fall migration
at the Marin Headlands in the San Franciso Bay area. At locations such as
these, you frequently do not get close-up views of the birds. Overall
size, shape, macro-coloration, and flight pattern are the main keys to
identification. We were always impressed at how the real jizz experts could
identify birds at what seemed to be several miles away. When the birds
would get closer in, their identifications were always right-on.

Regarding the McNary Bird, Andy Stepniewski wrote in part:

>One thing that surprised me was most, if not all reports failed to mention
this bird in
>flight. In my experience (from California in the distant past and more
>recently at Ridgefield), a Red-shoulder is quite readily recognizable in
>flight from a Red-tail, both in flight style and silhouette. Instead, we see
>the reports dealing with detailed plumage descriptions.

Some of our previous posts did discuss some flight characteristics, but
clearly the posts were oriented toward detailed plumage descriptions. We
will be happy to post directly to anyone who is interested, details of
flight, size, shape, and behavior.



Bill and Nancy LaFramboise
Richland, WA
wlafra at oneworld.owt.com