Hi Tweets,

Now that I've damaged any credibility I may have had by misidentifying
a bluebird in a photo I will just have to go all the way and blow my
reputation with this one.

About 20-30 minutes ago an immature Ferruginous Hawk very obligingly
flew over my house in West Seattle. I was out back putting up a
god-awful looking bird house that was a family christmas "present"
when I decided to bring the bins out to look at some birds flying very
high overhead. They were just gulls, but as I looked off to the west I
saw a raptor headed towards me, from the area of the Fauntleroy ferry
dock. It looked like an eagle as it approached head-on - the slow
wing-beat and broad chest were noticeable. As it came closer and
started to give me various profiles as it began to circle in a hilltop
thermal I realized it was a buteo.

It had a bit of a dihedral at times, but I was still thinking itmust be a
Redtail. I was trying to see if it was the immature Redtail we saw
here a week or so ago, but I couldn't see any patagial bar - just some
black on the tips of the primary coverts and some mottling on the
rest of the coverts. The bulky body and the long wings with a rather
straight trailing edge which were well seen as it circled right over
the yard at a heigh of about 100' made my heart start pounding as
I realized I was looking at a Ferruginous Hawk. Also noted were the
pale patches on the primary bases and the unmarked tail (from
below). I never got a good luck at the uppertail. There were no red
leggings, thus I called it an immature bird.

I sprinted to a neighbor's (Lyanda Haupt) house to see if she was
home, but although it circled (albeit much higher) over her house,
she came out perhaps 20-30 seconds after it dissapeared. I know,
you're thinking "yeah, right". Well, I probably would to.

I better wrap up and send this in hopes that someone else might
spot this bird.

Good luck!

--
Jim Flynn
merlinmania at comcast.net
Seattle, WA