Folks,

Thanks for all the helpful info. A number of you have asked where this
bird was photographed. I saw him on a tree adjoining the parking lot of
a set of apartments next door to Stadium High School in Tacoma, WA. This
complex overlooks Commencement Bay, but perhaps more notably, is
directly above a large grain elevator. Hundreds of pigeons sit on the
supports over the docked ocean freighters there, and equal number of
Canadian Geese walk along the railroad tracks picking up spilled grain.
I frequently see all manner of raptors which take advantage of the easy
prey.

I'll be happy to post other photos if there are particular aspects of
this bird which the two photos i already posted don't shed any light on.
I haven't seen him yet today, but will update the thread if i do.

Again, thanks for the help. Kind regards,
--Mark Packard

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That would be my call as well (I sent a note off-list to Mark) based on
the feathered tarsii (at least the images appear to show that fairly
clearly). However, it's interesting to see in the first image that the
dorsal surface of the tail appears to be completely white, suggesting a
leucistic bird...? Again, the image that shows the tail isn't
completely definitive - there could be a dark terminal band there, but
it sure looks like the tail is completely white. It's certainly an
interesting bird. Several of us just got back from a north-central WA
trip on which we saw probably two dozen Roughies, and this one is
unusually marked versus the ones we saw - although this certainly is a
species with a wide variety of plumage variation.



John Tubbs

Snoqualmie, WA

johntubbs at comcast.net
<http://mailman2.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters>

www.tubbsphoto.com


----- Original Message -----
From: "Buddha's Ghost" <buddhasghost at comcast.net
<http://mailman2.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters>>
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
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Sent: Saturday, February 27, 2010 12:54:23 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: [Tweeters] Re:Mystery Hawk help


Appears to be a Rough-Legged hawk.


J Lemons
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Mark Packard wrote:
> Hi Tweets,
>
> Several times over the last two weeks, i've woken up to a lovely white
> and brown hawk perched on a tree about a hundred feet away. I've
> tentatively decided that he/she is either a Rough-legged or a Northern
> Goshawk, but would certainly appreciate some help from more
> experienced folks. Here are the two best photos i was able to take:
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/reasonablysane/4393090638/in/photostream/
> and
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/reasonablysane/4392317573/in/photostream/
>
> For those of you not familiar with Flickr, there is a link just above
> the picture for larger versions of the photo called 'All Sizes'.
>
> Thanks in advance for your help. Regards,
> --Mark Packard
>