Hi Patricia and Tweeters:
Patricia should go back and try to get a better look at the Red-shouldered
Hawk, to get good views of the structure and color of the bird. The Kent
Ponds (GRNRA) census team got good looks at this very-flighty bird on
Sunday, Jan 21 as we sought views of it in the area south of the King County
Animal Shelter on 64th Ave S. Michael Hobbs had written that he saw the
bird at 10am on Sat. We started seeing the bird at 11:30am on Sun. A good
viewing spot is from the Animal Shelter public parking lot, or from the
Graybar bldg lot across the street (that lot is elevated). We first
observed the bird perched about 8 ft up along the south edge of the woods
near the SW corner of the Animal Shelter lot. It flew north. But it must
have looped around to the south again, because the next time we saw it, it
was perched on a tree about 100 feet to the south of the An. Shelter lot.
The crows are not mobbing it anymore, so you can't find it from that
behavior. However, when the hawk flies, you will hear some crows calling.
The hawk flew yet again, and the next time we located it, we were in the
Graybar parking lot, looking west to the Osprey platform. The bird was
perched out to the right and back of that platform about 200 feet from the
platform. It was in a deciduous tree about 15 feet up. (The bird always
perches fairly low.) We saw it there about 12:30 pm on Sunday and viewed it
through numberous scopes for about 20 minutes.
Kathy Andrich pointed out a number of field marks. First you notice its
bright reddish-brown head. The hawk is smaller than most Red-tailed Hawks,
but is puffed out and resembles a Red-tail in its shape. It has a
bright-yellow cere that really stands out. Kathy pointed out another
very-good field mark. It has SHORT WINGS that end about 2 inches up from
the bottom of the tail. To view these various field marks and compare it to
a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk in the area whose wings reach to about 1 inch up
from the bottom of the tail, please see Marv Breece's pictures in his
Tweeters msg. of Sat, Jan 20, 9:00am. These are great pictures of the two
birds.
If you visit the Graybar parking lot, please park in other areas during
weekdays, as the lot fills with employees. Then walk to the lot, and stay
out of the way of trucks and cars. Good luck seeing this bird. It seems to
be pretty faithful to the NE corner of Kent Ponds.
Yours, Carol Schulz, Des Moines, linusq at att.net
----- Original Message -----
From: "pslott" <VariedThrush at comcast.net>
To: "TWEETERS" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 10:27 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Kent Red-shouldered Hawk


> Thanks to Kathy and Carol for directions, and to Marv Breece for a few
> well chosen photos, I believe I got a look today at the Red-shouldered
> Hawk north of 'grassy knoll' at the Kent Ponds. I arrived just after Guy
> McWethy, so we searched together in the small trees north of the ponds.
> Guy spotted it first, but I only got on the bird as it flew. I got to
> spot it next just north of a row of small evergreens. The lovely reddish
> brown hue of the head caught my eye first, then I saw the orangeish
> barring on the breast and the puffed out upper breast so like Marv's
> picture. I was a little stunned by the attractive color, so different
> than the chocolate brown of an immature Red-tailed we saw shortly
> afterward. It certainly fit the earlier descriptions of flighty,
> don't-look-at-me behavior. We saw the bird around 3:15 PM. A very nice
> bird for King County.
>
> Patricia S. Lott
> Seattle, WA
> mail to: VariedThrush at comcast.net