Dear VA-BIRDers,
Less than an hour ago, walking across the parking lot, I saw a largish
raptor swooping across, fairly low. I saw a nearly uniform light-colored
underside, buff to white, with no tail bands and no prominent wing
markings. The wings came to an accipiter-ish point, but the bird had the
build of a buteo, and soared on a slight dihedral. When the bird perched,
it revealed a light rufous back. It flew away with only very slight
wingbeats.
One never has one's bins at a time like this (I was returning from
teaching) -- Murphy's Law of birding, I suppose. Given the description
above, is there the remotest chance that there is a Ferruginous Hawk in
Fairfax? It would be rather out of its normal range, but then so were the
hums at the Ripley garden....
Many thanks in advance for any thoughts you can provide,
Gwyn McVay
Fairfax City
---
"Nobody gets paid for being a poemer."
-- Bucky the cat, "Get Fuzzy," 6/30/03
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