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Re: Broad-Winged Hawk pair - Conway, SC 1/17/00
>My wife, Barbara, and I went canoeing from the Crabtree Watershed through
>Kingston Lake to downtown Conway, SC today. The terrain is cypress/mixed
>hardwood swamp. Lots of birds were present. Good birds included:
>
>Brown Creeper - at least 3, maybe 4
>Anhinga - 2
>2 separate consortia of Eastern Bluebirds eating mistletoe berries (swamp
>birds?)
>Broad-Winged Hawks - the canoe rounded a corner and two of these got out of
>a tree on the bank, about 70' away. We saw very small buteos (much smaller
>than crows) with wide banded tails. We noted "yellowish" breasts and
>underwings - the same details we confirmed later on the "adult" BWH in the
>National Geo. book. Whereas we have seen a number of BWHs, these are the
>first for us in several years.
>
>Cheers,
>
>Stephen Thomas
>stype@sccoast.net
>Aynor, SC
STEVE . . .
I suspect the hawks you saw were not Broad-winged Hawks but
Red-shouldered Hawks. January would be exceedingly early for
broadwings--they winter in Central & South America and I believe your
date would be about two-and-a-half months earlier than the earliest,
fully accepted records. Red-shouldereds, on the other hand, are
year-round residents in the Carolinas; I saw a pair copulating in my
yard this weekend.
The breast and underwing of the Red-shouldered Hawk are often
orangish, and because there are more alternating dark and light
bands, the tail-banding is often more obvious than in broadwings.
If you need an excuse to go canoeing again, you might approach the
same spot with a camera and try to capture the birds on film. You
might also listen for the loud "Blue Jay-like" call of the
red-shouldered; it's very different from the shrill, high-pitched
call of the broadwing (which resembles an Eastern Wood-Pewee).
Happy Birding,
BILL
**********
BILL HILTON JR.
"The Piedmont Naturalist"
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
1432 DeVinney Road
York, South Carolina 29745
USA
e-mail: <hilton@rubythroat.org>
Voice & Fax: (803) 684-5852
Operation RubyThroat Website: <http://www.rubythroat.org>
"Never trust a person too lazy to get up for sunrise or too busy to
watch the sunset."
BHjr.
**********