Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Broad-winged Hawk

While driving along hwy #7 this morning nearing Oromocto, about 1 or 2 km from where the #7 meets the Trans-Canada we saw a hawk fly across the highway above us. Rather curious as to what it was we pulled over onto the shoulder and got out of our car; me with my camera and my spouse with the binoculars. I was surprised, and also delighted, that it circled above a few times just slightly to our right. As we watched I was able to get some underbody photos of it as it circled. The sun was bright and I couldn't get a lot of detail but the best thing about the photos was its undertail white band for this is what helped me with the id of it. The underneath markings of this hawk match up with those of a Dark adult Broad-winged Hawk on p.118 of David Sibley's, The Sibley Guide to Birds, 2000. Without this view I don't think I would have been able to id this bueto. This was a rather special sighting for me as I don't recall having made an id of a Broad-winged Hawk before.

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