Looking at your second pair of photos, I still say the bird is a Rough-legged Hawk. Again, the flight shot clearly shows legs feathered down to the toes.

Barry Ulman
Bellingham, WA.


On Nov 21, 2011, at 6:19 AM, retief wrote:

> I have added a couple of more photos which hopefully will help explain more of what I was thinking.
> No white dots on wing coverts: http://www.thefocusedeye.com/img/s11/v37/p366545781-5.jpg
> No banding on tail: http://www.thefocusedeye.com/img/s11/v30/p431229328-4.jpg
>
> I am looking at the Peterson Field Guides, and the Red-tails all show white dots and bands on the tail. And the beak on the Red-tail looks larger to me as well. I also did not think Adult Rough Legged because I don't see banding on the tail either.
>
> Add to that the this bird didn't take off as soon as I thought of taking it's picture, I figured it couldn't be a Red-tail :-).
>
> Any other thoughts? I sure wish I was better at this. Then again, when I first got started 6 or 7 years ago I took a photo at Hayton Reserve and when my wife said "What was that?", my answer was "Some small hawk". A birder standing next to us heard me and said "No, that was a Short-eared owl". Since I knew everything I didn't believe him until I zoomed in on my camera, and danged if that wasn't my first Short-eared owl picture. So now I at least try to get it right, with a lot of help from folks like you.
>
> Thanks!
>
> On 11/20/2011 10:09 PM, Ann Marie Wood wrote:
>> Hi:
>>
>> We may have seen the same bird which I identified as a dark morph Red-tailed juvenile. In the small Sibley they look remarkably alike. Please post your conclusions and/or feedback.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Ann Marie Wood
>> Mountlake Terrace
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Bill Dewey
>> www.thefocusedeye.com
>> www.deweydrive.com
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