The whole point of free speech is not to make ideas exempt from criticism but to expose them to it.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Red-tailed hawk? Red-shouldered? Anybody?

Between Manville and Lusk, Wyoming, 2/5/12. Best I can tell, this is a Red-tailed hawk, but there are a lot of shading variations in both red-tailed and red-shouldered hawks. Any Foruminants have a clue?

[Update after Repete's comment: Looking at Google images of Ferruginous Hawks, I think Repete is right, although I'm still not absolutely convinced. Google images of the other two hawks show various shadings at different maturity stages. Oh well.]




7 comments:

repete said...

My guess is a ferruginous hawk

Anonymous said...

yeah I am pretty sure a ferruginous. Dark legs make a V shape in flight. I believe it is one of largest hawks. Redshouldered hawks should not be in the northern plains states at any time especially not in Winter. Jerry

Bob Newland said...

Thanks for the comments. I'll go with Ferruginous.

Wayne Gilbert said...

I ran the photos by a raptor expert friend of mine, who tells me that ferruginous is correct.

Bob Newland said...

I appreciate the bird ID responses. I only place them on my Life List when I have a photo and the photo is more or less verified as to identification.

A couple of life circumstances converge to encourage this hobby. I'm on the road quite a little, with a little time to spare sometimes. I like to photograph stuff.

I had never heard of Ferruginous Hawks until I was browsing my Audubon North American Birds book, and I passed it over because, well, because it was called Ferruginous, which sounded foreign to me.

Now I know that "ferruginous" means "having the color of iron rust; reddish-brown."

I just used the proceeds from six convenience store corporate image evaluations (CIEs) to buy a lens that should allow me to count feathers at half a mile.

A lot of people trade the equivalent of 50 or 100 CIEs to get such a lens.

Sometime in the next few weeks, I will post results using the new lens. I am pretty sure that I will immediately want a good lens.

I did an average of about 40 CIEs per month last year. I hope the $150 800mm lens is better than I think it will be.

Wayne Gilbert said...

obviously, the main problem with birding is that the bastards generally won't sit still long enough for you to look them up in
Audobon or Sibley's

Wayne Gilbert said...

Please report on your experience with the new lens.