Subject: Re: Malheur Red-shouldered Hawks
Date: Feb 25 18:07:58 1998
From: "Jon. Anderson and Marty Chaney" - festuca at olywa.net


Hi folks,

Don Baccus wrote:

"BANG!!!! OK, now that you've been shot, it's a VERY rare bird not only
there, but throughout Oregon, passing through on migration. There have
been, I believe, four records in the "greater Malheur area". A trip I
led a few years ago has one of them, at Roaring Springs in the Catlow
Valley (just southwest of Frenchglen, over the hill)."

C.D. Littlefield's book "Birds of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge" (1990, OSU Press) lists:

Red-shouldered Hawk
Buteo lineatus

"Accidental. On August 8, 1976, S. Herman located a Red-shouldered Hawk near the Blitzen
River at P Ranch. S. Croghan and I returned with Herman to the same location on August 9.
The individual was watched for some time as it attempted to roost in a cottonwood grove. Eight
Red-tailed Hawks were also roosting and continually harassed the Red-shouldered Hawk.
Eventually it was driven away and was last seen flying southwest over P Ranch (Littlefield 1980).
In addition, M. Smith observed an adult and immature near Frenchglen on August 27, 1987.
These represent the only refuge records; however C. Bendire collected three eggs from two
nests near Camp Harney (10 miles north of Malheur Lake) in April and May 1878. In addition,
Bendire (1892) collected an adult female on April 17, 1878."

A bit more grist for the mill...

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net