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Strange Red-tail
- To: "Carolina Birds listserve" <carolinabirds@duke.edu>
- Subject: Strange Red-tail
- From: "kestrel" <kestrel@valink.com>
- Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2002 09:42:32 -0500
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
I was returning home from Raleigh yesterday, checking out raptors as I drove
along hwy. 421. About 16 miles south of Greensboro, I spotted, what I
thought at first, was just another Red-tailed hawk. As I came closer, it
banked so that I could see its topside. There was a flash of white! I
pulled over and checked it out. It was obviously a Red-tail. From
underneath, it looked completely normal except that the tail was a pinkish
color and the breast band was very faint. There were a few pure white
secondary feathers. I got a couple of brief glimpses of the dorsal side of
the bird (difficult when a bird is soaring overhead) with my 10X binoculars.
>From the very brief glimpses, it appears that a substantial portion of the
dorsal side of the body is pure white and the dorsal side of the wings, out
to the primaries, are also pure white. The white color is startling. Much
whiter than the underside breast and wings. The specific area that I saw
the hawk is about one mile south of hwy. 62, 421 intersection where the high
voltage line crosses the road. My glimpses of the top of this hawk were so
brief that I would be interested to hear a better description of this bird.
Hopefully, someone in the area can check it out.
Also had an immature Bald eagle while crossing Lake Jordan on hwy 64.
Harrol Blevins
On the New River @ NC/VA border
kestrel@valink.com