Thursday, February 10, 2011

Red-tailed Hawk - Harlan's

I've seen a dark hawk near marker 13 on the auto tour at RNWR regularly for the past 2 or 3 months. It usually sits in a small tree quite a ways off the road so I have never been able to get a decent shot of it.
Since yesterday was such a beautiful, sunny day, I decided to make a quick trip to RNWR. I saw most of the usual birds including an American Bittern. The Swan numbers have dwindled down to just a few.
As I approached marker 13 I saw the dark hawk flying low in front of me. I quickly stopped the car and stuck my head and camera out the side window and got off one shot before it passed in front of me. The image turned out good enough to get a pretty good look at it. Based on the under wing (dark coverts and light primaries and secondaries with dark tips) and tail (light gray) coloration, this hawk fits a Harlan's subspecies of a Red-tailed Hawk.
I've been seeing reports of a Harlan's at RNWR on OBOL, so I assume this is the hawk.

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