Saturday afternoon my wife, a German exchange student and I went down to
Richmond Beach. It was clear and cold and VERY windy. Up on the
overlooking bluff on the south side, I noticed a raptor being buzzed by a
couple of crows. By its size, I dismissed it as a red tail. However,
when it left the tree it was perched on and flew directly overhead, I had
good looks with my binoculars and determined it wasn't like any red tail
I've seen. There was absolutely no hind of reddishness in the tail from
below or above. There was a darker belly compared to the lighter throat
area, and there were wrist patches. Its actions didn't resemble a RT
either--it would hover in one spot, seeming to look for prey, take a dive,
only to come up and hover again. This looked like rough leg behavior to
me. One thing I didn't see (or couldn't was any sign of whiteness in the
tail region. Everything else, however, pointed to a rough legged hawk.
Have any other of you Tweets seen a rough legged in that area?

wjansen