From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Thu Jan 8 18:10:13 2004 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i0927e2t011193 for <[[email protected]]>; Thu, 8 Jan 2004 18:07:40 -0800 (PST) Received: from rwcrmhc12.comcast.net (rwcrmhc12.comcast.net [216.148.227.85]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i0926m1l011144 for <[[email protected]]>; Thu, 8 Jan 2004 18:06:49 -0800 (PST) Received: from Joint (c-24-6-183-150.client.comcast.net[24.6.183.150]) by comcast.net (rwcrmhc12) with SMTP id <2004010902064801400rm9pie>; Fri, 9 Jan 2004 02:06:48 +0000 From: "Michael Pollack" <[[email protected]]> To: <[[email protected]]> Subject: [SBB] Ferruginous Continues (and some questions) Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2004 18:06:50 -0800 Message-ID: <[[email protected]]> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0) X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1165 Importance: Normal In-Reply-To: <[[email protected]]> X-BeenThere: [[email protected]] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.2+ Precedence: list List-Id: South Bay Birding List-Unsubscribe: , List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Errors-To: south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Thanks to everyone for previous reports on the Ferruginous Hawk(s). I was able to get some great views of the hawk and see some interesting behavior. All of this took place in the field on the NE corner of the intersection of Santa Teresa and Richmond between 1:30 and 2:30 pm today. At first, the behavior was limited to watching one hawk spend some time on the ground and then fly to one of the telephone/power poles. It would return to the ground, and after some time, back to the telephone pole. Each time the FEHA perched on the telephone pole, a female kestrel would become upset and harass the FEHA. A second adult FEHA could be seen far away in the field, with only its head and upper torso visible above the weeds/grass. Eventually, the first adult FEHA swooped down from the telephone pole and caught a rodent. I can't be sure, but brief glances suggested to me that its prey was a ground squirrel. It flew a very short distance and landed on the ground and began trying to subdue its prey. I decided to move my car to get a better look at the prey, and by the time I'd repositioned, there was a new hawk involved with the prey. I didn't see where it came from: was it already on the ground or did it fly in? It then became apparent that the new hawk had possession of the prey. The adult FEHA soon flew off (without significant protest) to roost a couple of hundred yards away in the field. I watched the new hawk feasting on the rodent for 30 minutes before I finally had to leave. The new hawk looked quite different from the adult FEHAs I'd already seen. It was about 20% smaller than the adult FEHA, primarily dark brown on its back, mostly bright white on its breast and underside, and had rufous and white feathers covering its legs. I watched the smaller bird feasting on the rodent for 30 minutes before I finally had to leave. I concluded that new hawk was an immature FEHA. But there were a couple of things that left me wondering. First, it didn't look exactly like either the light or dark immature FEHAs depicted in my Sibley guide. The bird had significant dark brown, vertical, streaking that started on above its shoulders, and came around high on its breast (right below the throat) to almost the center of the breast. Sibley's illustration shows no streaking on the breast at all. Also, Sibley shows no rufous coloring at all on the legs of the juvenile FEHA. I only had 8X binoculars, and the bird was some distance away, so I couldn't get much more detail. Can anyone confirm my observations as consistent with FEHA raising their young? Would they have young this time of year? Would a parent be likely to bring food to its young which would then feed on the ground? Sorry for the long rambling message, but this was a very special sighting for me, and I'd love to know with more confidence what it was I saw! Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide me. Michael Pollack Cupertino _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. south-bay-birds mailing list ([[email protected]]) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://www.plaidworks.com/mailman/options/south-bay-birds/south-bay-birds-archive%40plaidworks.com This email sent to [[email protected]]