oddly enough, i live not 5 miles from that spot and found the bird pretty
easily within 5 minutes of arrival (about 13.20 or so)... all i had to do
was find a harrasment of crows (first photo) :)

for about 45 minutes, our rough-legged friend went from sitting on a pole
just west of the slough, about 50 metres or so from the east end of the
bridge crossing the slough, to sitting on a telephone pole near the
124th/willows intersection, to a few spots inbetween... 50 metres was about
as close as he would let me get during my time with him, and unfortunately,
there was no cover to approach closer...

as he ran from me the last time, he went east towards the farm on the
southwest corner of 124th and redmond-woodinville (hwy 202)... at the same
moment, two other raptors showed up, both harrassed by more crows: one was
a red-tail hawk, who situated himself at the top of a poplar north of 124th
on the slough... the other proceeded much further north along the water,
until it was about 200 metres away, where i lost it...

the second raptor appeared to have the same colouration as the rough-legged
hawk... what sticks in my mind was (1) i saw all three birds at the same
time (thus making sure the second of the two raptors headed north was NOT
the rough-legged i'd been following), and (2) the tail feathers and
under-wings were pretty bright (not at all like the red-tail), very similar
to the rough-legged hawk... while it's possible it was a juvenile bald
eagle, i personally don't think it's likely given the underwing colours...
too bad i only saw it for less than 30 seconds from about 100+ metres away
and more...

all three birds were gone from sight by 14.30, but i don't think there's
much reason to assume all three left the area completely...

six photos on the website, under GALLERIES, CAREN PARK, and ROUGH-LEGGED
HAWK... i apologize for the quality of the shots; sometimes, winter
lighting just isn't what it's cracked up to be :)

00 caren
http://www.parkgallery.org

ps: thank you, brian (and michael) for posting where the bird was, and
doing so quickly :)


-----Original Message-----
From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu]On Behalf Of b&p bell
Sent: Sunday, 2004 November 21 12:44
To: Tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Tweeters] Rough-legged Hawk in King Co.


Hi Ho Tweets

Michael Hobbs and I just got nice looks at a Northern Rough-legged Hawk
here in King Co. The bird was initially seen by Michael along NE 124th
Street (south of road) just east of Willows Rd on a telephone pole
adjacent to the Sammamish River (right at the boundary between Redmond
and Woodinville). When the two of us went back down a few minutes later,
the bird had moved to the north side of NE 124th St and was sitting on
one of the irrigation wheels close to the road on the JB sod farm. This
was at 12:30 pm. After we turned around and went back, the bird flew
down along the side of the road and was not immediately visible. If you
go to try and see this bird be aware that because of the construction
along NE 124th parking is not possible along the road, and traffic tends
to be reasonably heavy. Care should be taken.

This was the first time I have seen Northern Rough-legged Hawk in King
County. This was a very pretty bird, and was a classic rough-legged.

Brian H. Bell
Woodinville Wa
bellasoc at isomedia.com

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