At 07:31 PM 8/5/98 -0700, Rob Saecker wrote:
>
>I'll add my two cents' worth here, and further your confusion: all the big
>buteos up here do this. Swainson's, rough-leg, red-tail, and ferruge, I've
>seen them all hover. I agree with Jack that red-tails need a stiff wind,
>and add that in my experience, an immature is much more likely to be trying
>it than an adult. I can't say that I've seen any of them do it in dead
>calm, though I would think Swainson's would be as capable as rough-legs.
>And then, there is the possibility, however remote, that what you saw was a
>white-tailed kite...

This kind of hovering doesn't really fit the normal hunting mode of
red-tails (who like to perch-hunt or hunt from a soar), Swainson's (who
often hunt quite low to the ground, in the Great Plains I can attest to
their looking like TVs flocking and rocking and V'ing themselves over
fields in search of crickets), or Ferrouginous hawks which frequently
hunt from the ground.

Still, this doesn't rule out hovering on the part of any of them, and
I've seen many buteos do so...

>


- Don Baccus, Portland OR <dhogaza at pacifier.com>
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