Thanks for sticking up for the good state of Washington, Brad. My only encounter with Swainson's Hawks west of the Cascades was many years ago in November at Reifel Refuge, when I saw an immature out in a field. I was amazed until I learned that the refuge people had rescued a nestful of three young in eastern BC and brought them over to Reifel to raise. Instead of taking them back across the mountains and releasing them in September, they released them from Reifel in November! I thought that was a surprising lack of insight, and who knows what happened to those birds.

I agree with you entirely about Swainson's looking quite different from Red-tailed in flight, just as you described. I can distinguish them just about as far as I can see them by their shape differences and flight style.

Ahh, to live in easy range of Point No Point!

Dennis

On May 18, 2012, at 7:41 PM, Brad Waggoner wrote:

>
>
> Wayne,
>
> You BC dudes need get with it and document some of these spring Swainson's Hawks. Do you mean to tell me that they are all taking a right turn somewhere prior to the border and heading east? Seems unlikely but what the heck.
>
> You must know by now, by my other comments about the need for documenting early arriving reports of Swainson's Thrush and Red-eyed Vireo, that documenting rare sightings is extremely important to me. I can tell you that every one of the spring western Washington Swainson's Hawks that made it into North American Birds columns was critically scrutinized. A few were very nicely documented. Ryan Merill had a photo of one in Sequim a few springs back and I was able to video capture one of the three Swainson's Hawks moving over Point no Point in 2008. Only one of my Kitsap Swainson's Hawks was seen by me only. All others involved multiple observers. In fact, on a WOS trip about three years ago, about 12 of us got to scope study a Swainson's Hawk going over a lunch stop place a few miles south of Point no Point. That was fun!
>
> Now it could very well be that the Puget Trough, and maybe specifically the north end of the Kitsap Peninsula is just a hot spot for catching these very few west-side migrant Swainson's Hawk. Come on over to Point no Point in mid-May and see what I'm talking about. We may not get a Swainson's Hawk, but I can almost assure you of witnessing hawk migration if conditions are right. I don't think I have an answer to why you are lacking credible records for spring Swainson's Hawks. Given that, I can see why "exceptionally rare" in BC would apply. But, it no longer applies in western Washington, though I would still call them "rare". It looks as though Gene's King County records would further support their "rare" status.
>
> I would agree that Swainson's Hawk color morphs could be easily confused with many color morphs of Red-tailed Hawks. But I would think that is something that can be tricky with a perched hawks at a distance. But in flight, I have to tell you, it is all about structure, at least to even go down the Swainson's Hawk identification path. I know this will be misinterpreted, but Swainson's Hawk are more reminiscent of a Northern Harrier in flight that a Red-tailed Hawk to me. They have long pointy wings and a longish tail (looks often narrow to me). They also soar with there wings in a dihedral. I guess I have watched enough of both Red-tail and Swainson's hawks in flight to find them quite different, if seen well.
>
> Cheers and good hawk-watching,
>
> Brad Waggoner
> Bainbridge Island
> mailto:wagtail at sounddsl.com
>
>
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-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net



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