Scott,


This is a great series. Always a challenge to ID- but soaking wet and a snake attached?


I do not know, because of the very wet feathers. lf only there was a shot of the tail, supercilium and dry breast feathers! Difficult to know if the dorsal feathers are darker than normal because the bird is soaked.


This could be a very rare, thought extinct, state record " Snake-Bit-tern ". Matt?


My best speculation: perhaps a first year Cooper's- great legs and those are some large feet- breast streaking may be not well seen because of water saturation.


Of course, if that is a white supercilium and not a random feather above the eye in that one shot, it could be a first year Northern Goshawk, but from the perspectives given, it looks small for that species.




OK, Bud, of the thousands of hawks you have seen, I I'll bet you have seen a few wet ones identical to this one. I look forward to speculation of others and your ID.






Nice capture!


Dan Reiff

----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott R a y" <mryakima at gmail.com>
To: "birdyak" <birdyak at yahoogroups.com>, "Tweeters" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2012 7:53:18 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Aquatic struggle between accipiter (?) sp and pituophis catenifer

Tweeters and BirdYakkers,

A fishing buddy sent these photos to me. The fishermen spotted this
hawk last November struggling in the Snake River with a Gopher Snake.
The two animals were nearing exhaustion. The fishermen rescued the
pair and separated them.

The hawk looks like some sort of accipiter. Probably a (small)
Goshawk or Coopers(?). Or is it even an accipiter? It seems like
young Goshawks are more prone to biting off more than they can handle.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/74203149 at N05/sets/72157628846557889/with/6687816653/

Bud Anderson, where are you?




Scott




Scott R
Yakima, WA
mryakima at gmail dot com
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