Rough-legged Hawks, 28 Feb 2008
Just the opposite: it was dark, cloudy and with snow flurries. So I drove the roads and looked for the hawks. I did not fare as well as Jeff (he would report 23 RLH's today) and only found a dozen Rough-legged Hawks and 6 Red-tailed Hawks. Most were far out, and digiscoping was difficult.
My only consolation was a nice Dark Morph Rough-legged Hawk that perched near Kehoe Rd. I managed to get a couple digiscoped images
and a short video of it
from the side of the road before it took off and flew overhead. Twice it did this from two different locations, and luckily I was able to capture it in flight the second time. Examining the photos you can see a very small, slender beak that separates it from a dark Red-tailed Hawk (which also has more white spotting in the wings and chest).
I created this composite shot to show the bird in flight!
I created this composite shot to show the bird in flight!
Several Horned Larks were flying in the area, and this little guy landed just a few feet away from where I was shooting. I got quite the dirty look from him after a few pics.
As the snow began falling heavier, I found a flock of about 150 Snow Buntings / Horned Larks in a field just off Pennington and Billmeyer. This light-phased Rough-legged Hawk was perched in a nearby tree and posed long enough for a long-distance shot.
Returning toward home along Macon Rd. I spotted about 2-dozen Crows and a single Pileated Woodpecker.
Murphy Rd, Tecumseh, Lenawee, Michigan, US
Feb 28, 2008 7:00 AM - 9:30 AM
Protocol: Traveling
12.0 mile(s)
Checklist Comments: Yesterday Jeff Schultz reported seeing a whopping 39 Rough-legged Hawks in the Clinton/Tecumseh area of Lenawee Co., MI. So today I decided to run down and look for photo opportunities. Unfortunately, at 7 am the skies did not clear as predicted. Just the opposite: it was dark, cloudy and with snow flurries. So I drove the roads and looked for the hawks. I did not fare as well as Jeff (he would report 23 RLH's today) and only found a dozen Rough-legged Hawks and 6 Red-tailed Hawks
6 species
Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) 6
Rough-legged Hawk (Buteo lagopus) 12 Most were far out, and digiscoping was difficult. My only consolation was a nice Dark Morph Rough-legged Hawk that perched near Kehoe Rd. I managed to get a couple digiscoped images and a short video of it from the side of the road before it took off and flew overhead. Twice it did this from two different locations, and luckily I was able to capture it in flight the second time. Examining the photos you can see a very small, slender beak that separates it from a dark Red-tailed Hawk (which also has more white spotting in the wings and chest).
Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) 1
American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) 12
Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris) 1
Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis) 100 in field with Horned Larks. Several hundred birds total
View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S4
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)
Feb 28, 2008 7:00 AM - 9:30 AM
Protocol: Traveling
12.0 mile(s)
Checklist Comments: Yesterday Jeff Schultz reported seeing a whopping 39 Rough-legged Hawks in the Clinton/Tecumseh area of Lenawee Co., MI. So today I decided to run down and look for photo opportunities. Unfortunately, at 7 am the skies did not clear as predicted. Just the opposite: it was dark, cloudy and with snow flurries. So I drove the roads and looked for the hawks. I did not fare as well as Jeff (he would report 23 RLH's today) and only found a dozen Rough-legged Hawks and 6 Red-tailed Hawks
6 species
Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) 6
Rough-legged Hawk (Buteo lagopus) 12 Most were far out, and digiscoping was difficult. My only consolation was a nice Dark Morph Rough-legged Hawk that perched near Kehoe Rd. I managed to get a couple digiscoped images and a short video of it from the side of the road before it took off and flew overhead. Twice it did this from two different locations, and luckily I was able to capture it in flight the second time. Examining the photos you can see a very small, slender beak that separates it from a dark Red-tailed Hawk (which also has more white spotting in the wings and chest).
Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) 1
American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) 12
Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris) 1
Snow Bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis) 100 in field with Horned Larks. Several hundred birds total
View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S4
This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)
