Subject: [Tweeters] DARK MORPH RED-TAILED HAWK (RTHA) - Sikes Lake
Date: Sep 18 16:21:43 2008
From: johntubbs at comcast.net - johntubbs at comcast.net


Hi Everyone,

Mid-afternoon today (Thursday) I went by Sikes Lake near Carnation Farm (now Camp Korey) and had a gorgeous dark morph RTHA sitting on a fencepost near the the west end of the lake (the end most distant from the farm buildings). There was a 'normal' patterned bird sitting in the tall snag tree past the west end of the lake as well. I haven't seen this particular dark morph bird previously, though during the summer I haven't been looking for raptors nearly as much as I do in the winter, so it may be just passing through (or planning to winter over here).

What was really cool about this was that it was very tame and came right over to eat out of my hand! It rejected the raw organic peanuts, however, and went straight for the Cheetos bag. (OK, so I made this paragraph up, but I couldn't resist given the entertaining string on feeding robber jays...!)

: - )

John Tubbs
Snoqualmie, WA
johntubbs at comcast.net
www.tubbsphoto.com