Hi Tweets,

Tuesday, March 2 was such a gorgeous day that I did a swing through Brady
Loop Road, just west of Elma, on my way back from Aberdeen and spent from
3:30 - 5:00pm watching spring unfold in the river valley. Most of my time
was spent watching the immature Rough-legged Hawk hover flight in the field
next to the road. I'd seen this bird on earlier trips and hadn't decided
if it was a female or an immature and I wanted a better look. It was kind
enough to land on the pole above me, so that I could even see the creamy
yellow eyes - amazing.

While I was watching the RL Hawk hover a smaller buteo flew straight, low
and directly behind and into the copse of wood at the SW corner of Brady
Loop road. Of the undersides in great light, I saw a dark brown head, with
lighter brown body and no white gap in between like the RTHawk sitting in
the other tree. But the fieldmark that caught my attention was distinct
pale crescents at each wing tip. Can an immature RT Hawk in a dark morph
show such a characteristic? Regardless, the bird felt smaller than the
Rough-legged Hawk I had been watching.

I spent another half hour walking the edge of the woods, but no additional
sightings. I was rewarded with a flock of 100+ American Robins working the
fields and then suddenly, flying straight at me at head height. It was
actually kind of scary having them whiz by my ears with wings flapping.
The culprit was an adult (male?) Peregrine Falcon that was looking for
dinner and putting them all into the woods. It was quite an experience
being in the middle of that flock. I also learned that the American Robin
vocabulary is even larger than I thought. Put a 100+ American Robins in one
small area being pursued by a Peregrine and the variety and sheer volume of
alarm calls was quite amazing.

I finally left with a couple of Sora rails singing back by the river.

A good day to be alive and bird,

Marcus Roening
Tacoma, WA
marcus.d.roening at gsk.com