Hi Gang,

There was a truly beautiful (to me) hybrid Barrow's X Common Goldeneye in
Commodore Park this morning down by the Railroad bridge. It looked a lot
like the picture on page 100 of Sibley's guide. Two other adult male
Barrow's Goldeneyes were with it as were two female and one male Common
Merganser. There are also Double Crested Cormorants everywhere.

Now for the "mystery hawk" I was just leaving , waiting for my father to
finish in the mens room when one of the lock wall attendants yelled to me
that there was a hawk perched near the small locks, on the far side. I
trained my binocs on it and saw a smallish dark gray bird, on closer
inspection the back head and breast were dark gray with a lighter gray
belly. No other markings were visible, except the dark reddish-brown feet.
I noticed that people were passing within a few feet of it, so when my
Father (He's 84, having restrooms close by is important) came out we
headed over. I was able to walk right up to the bird. The red eyes, the
white cere and the cooing noise it was making led me to believe it wasn't a
hawk at all, but a dark Rock Dove, a common pigeon.

I've seen this bird before, I've never seen a color scheme quite like it.
It was well poofed out with its head in close so it did have a broad
shouldered look and the strong demarcation between breast and belly did
give it a hawk look. They said hawk, I thought hawk, it was all pretty
funny in the end.

Cliff Drake
Seattle WA
cliffdrake at qwest.net