On Sat, 3 May 1997, Sue Ericksen wrote:

[snip..]

Not a redtail. He is all black with barring on the tail.


Well...We believe them to be Swainson's Hawk, and the
> femeale is still in immature plummage.
>
Sue--

you're probably right..but, check out Ch. 7 p. 182 in
A Photographic Guide to N. American Raptors, by Wheeler & Clark
(best spent $29.95 of your hard-earned cash you'll ever make..)
and you will see the most confusing comparison of a dark
morph Rough leg and a Harlan's...actual photographs..not
artist renderings..

I once saw, on my way back down from Diamond Point counting hawks
a stunning dark morph redtail..not a Harlan's, like the picture
lower left corner of p. 96...coal black with an orange banded
tail..AMAZING...(on a phone pole just west of Cle Elem)

Tom