Hi Tweeters,
I'd like to comment on the recent discussion concerning light morph
Harlan's.
I've been interested in this form for a number of years as I consider it
to be one of the rarest plumages among hawks in Washington.
As far as their rarity, to my knowledge, no one has yet determined the
proportion of classic Harlan's among other red-tails here in Washington,
much less light morphs. So the answer is that we simply don't know how many
there are. It might be a great project for someone to figure this out.
Over the years that I have been working with hawks in this state, I have
only seen three, two in Whatcom County and one here in Skagit County, so
they are rare in any case.
It has been wonderful just to learn that several more individuals are now
being seen throughout the state.
In my opinion, it is not that there are more coming down but rather that
most people have not been aware of this plumage until the last few years.
You can miss them quite easily thinking that they are normal reds unless you
see the dorsal surface of the tail.
In the early 70's, I believe, there was a paper written about Harlan's
Hawks first showing up in Washington. Actually they had been here all along
but it was something new to the author who was from another state, a
phenomenon we have all seen since. I suspect the same is true about light
morphs. They have always been here but they are just quite rare. In fact,
you would have to look at the tails of every red-tail you saw to get an
accurate count of them. Who has time for that?
One last point is that Harlan's are strongly philopatric, returning to
the exact same wintering areas every year, even to the point of using the
same perches. So you can get to know individual birds as many of my friends
have been doing for years. Red-tails can live over 20 years in the wild so
it is something to look forward to every winter.

Bud Anderson
Falcon Research Group
Box 248
Bow, WA. 98232
360.757.1911