Rough-Legged Hawk

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Archive 2008 · Rough-Legged Hawk

genemiller
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p.1 #1 · Rough-Legged Hawk

With the large numbers of eagles at Conowingo since Thanksgiving, and numerous eagles spotted by Herb Houghton at Plank Road and Rio Reservoir, I thought today would bring some eagles to Croton, New York. Nothing personally viewed by myself, although one park visitor claimed to have seen an "immie", and another took a nice photo of a single adult male.

No eagles for me today, but plenty of hawks flying - Red Tailed and Rough-Legged. I was able to get some BIF shots of a beautiful female Rough-Legged Hawk. Her black marks at wrists, and pale streaked chest and broad dark belly were quite evident.

Happy Holidays to all FMers!! C&C Welcome.

GENE

1. Rough-Legged female about to stoop.

2012 © genemiller

Dec 26, 2008 at 12:15 AM

genemiller
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p.1 #2 · Rough-Legged Hawk

2. Rough-Legged female BIF.

2012 © genemiller

Dec 26, 2008 at 12:17 AM

genemiller
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p.1 #3 · Rough-Legged Hawk

3. Rough-Legged female perched - broad dark belly, and white tail dark band featthers evident.

2012 © genemiller

Dec 26, 2008 at 12:23 AM

mark fadely
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p.1 #4 · Rough-Legged Hawk

Nice shots of this bird Gene,

I've never seen one in the wild, so thanks for the thread. The markings are very different from hawks I've seen.

Dec 26, 2008 at 02:56 AM

Karl Witt
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p.1 #5 · Rough-Legged Hawk

Great images Gene and this confirms a hawk I had seen and was unsure what it was, now I know

This hawk seems to have a short body or smaller than the RTH?? At first glance for me I thought it was a harrier by the head but very nice underwing markings on these.

Great in-flights, thanks for sharing and ID on it.

Karl

Dec 26, 2008 at 03:05 AM

Sean Bellay
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p.1 #6 · Rough-Legged Hawk

I would love to see one of these! they are so beautiful. you did a great job on the BIF shots. The only thing I could suggest is to crop with more room in front of the bird (in the direction its going). thanks for sharing!

Dec 26, 2008 at 04:05 AM

GAREN
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p.1 #7 · Rough-Legged Hawk

Great captures well done

Eugene.

Garen

Dec 26, 2008 at 06:57 AM

Brenton Biggs
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p.1 #8 · Rough-Legged Hawk

That is one extremely pretty raptor. Your in flight shots show him off really well! Nice work on those!!!

Dec 26, 2008 at 02:46 PM

genemiller
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p.1 #9 · Rough-Legged Hawk

mark fadely wrote:
Nice shots of this bird Gene,

I've never seen one in the wild, so thanks for the thread. The markings are very different from hawks I've seen.

Thanks for the kind words, Mark. The underwing markings are truly unique. The only other raptor that I can think of with such distinctive underwing markings is the immature Golden Eagle with its' " headlights" (of course they are WHITE patches).

GENE

Dec 26, 2008 at 07:04 PM

genemiller
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p.1 #10 · Rough-Legged Hawk

Karl Witt wrote:
Great images Gene and this confirms a hawk I had seen and was unsure what it was, now I know

Appreciate you comments, Karl. When perched and viewed from the front it is somewhat similar to the Red-Tailed Hawk - they both have brownish streaks on a white chest, but the Rough-Legged Hawk had a solid dark brown belly.

GENE

Dec 26, 2008 at 07:12 PM

genemiller
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p.1 #11 · Rough-Legged Hawk

Sean Bellay wrote:
I would love to see one of these! they are so beautiful. you did a great job on the BIF shots. The only thing I could suggest is to crop with more room in front of the bird (in the direction its going). thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the kind words and suggestion, Sean. You are quite right, they are truly beautiful!

GENE

Dec 26, 2008 at 07:20 PM

genemiller
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p.1 #12 · Rough-Legged Hawk

GAREN wrote:
Great captures well done

Eugene.

Garen

Thanks for the thumbs-up, Garen.

GENE

Dec 26, 2008 at 07:22 PM

danjacquitaylo
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p.1 #13 · Rough-Legged Hawk

Great captures and such a beautiful Hawk.

Dan

Dec 26, 2008 at 07:41 PM

genemiller
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p.1 #14 · Rough-Legged Hawk

Brenton Biggs wrote:
That is one extremely pretty raptor. Your in flight shots show him off really well! Nice work on those!!!

Thanks for the very nice comments, Brenton. Viewing the underside of this raptor, when fully illuminated by sunlight is a truly remarkable site. The contrast of the black wrist marks and the white underwing feathers is brilliant! Brenton, I believe this hawk was a female (as viewed through binoculars), due to extremely white underwing feathers, only single dark band on tail feathers, and nearly completely dark brown belly.

GENE

Dec 26, 2008 at 07:47 PM

Martin Good
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p.1 #15 · Rough-Legged Hawk

Very nice in flight shots Gene. This bird has lovley markings and you captured it well.
Martin

Dec 26, 2008 at 08:15 PM

Tony Tanoury
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p.1 #16 · Rough-Legged Hawk

Great series Gene!

Dec 26, 2008 at 09:07 PM

harshaj1
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p.1 #17 · Rough-Legged Hawk

Very nice Gene.
Harsha

Dec 27, 2008 at 01:27 AM

rdcny
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p.1 #18 · Rough-Legged Hawk

Hi Gene,

Deborah Allen and I think you have a juvenile (first-year) RL Hawk at Croton. The tail band on the underside of the tail is light (grey) and not dark (almost black). This is characteristic of young RLs. Adults have a black terminal band (males darker than females; and adult males have a few more thin bars on the underside of the tail than do the adult females). As in most raptors, females are larger than males...So we think you have a young RL - but we cannot sex it based upon your photos (size is difficult to judge in photos). Your final photo of the RL (perched showing top side of tail) shows a strong (dark) tail band...if (for whatever reason) the underside tail band was this dark, then we would agree that you have an adult female RL...but all your other shots indicate to us you have a first-year bird, sex unknown...We would say you have a light morph bird too...(Bill Clark might call it an intermediate morph - since there can be much lighter RLs.)

Several RLs now appearing in the area - Meadowlands (NJ) seems to have several...at least one place in the Bronx has a light morph annd a dark morph.

Best Wishes,

rdc/nyc

Dec 27, 2008 at 05:18 AM

Nello Milanese
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p.1 #19 · Rough-Legged Hawk

Sweet shots of this guy! i can't help but notice that in some poses he/she looks like an owl almost

They have beautiful underwing markings!

Dec 27, 2008 at 11:37 AM

mercapto
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p.1 #20 · Rough-Legged Hawk

Nice shots

Too bad about the sunburn on some of them, but still a nice series

Dec 27, 2008 at 12:38 PM

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