Subject: [Tweeters] Unusual Red-tailed Hawk Behavior
Date: Feb 9 13:14:35 2005
From: STEVEN ARONOFF - OCERAS at msn.com


I was driving north into Bellingham yesterday when a Red-tailed Hawk flew close in front of my car and landed on a the nearly vertical rocks road cut, presumably having trapped something there. For the brief time I had to look at it, it was resting (?) vertically on the rock face with its spread out and its beautiful red tail fanned out below it. I suppose they must do this with some frequency, but it's something I haven't seen before.
Another fun thing I saw earlier in the afternoon was a Samish Flats field with about 14 bald eagles, mostly juveniles resting in a field near a tree where there were another 14. The fun thing, aside from the eagles, was that in the field there was also a flock of hundreds of small sandpipers (sanderlings?) a large bunch of which were filing by one of the juvenile eagles, nearly just under its beak.

Steve Aronoff
Bellingham WA
oceras at msn.com<mailto:oceras at msn.com>