[Birdnet] Red Shouldered Hawk

[Tony Jones]

Birders

After the Sunday that the Sommerfelds indicated to me that a Red Shouldered Hawk was seen off Park Lane, I searched some on Sunday and could not find it.  Then driving to work the next week, I noticed the bird.  I was hesitant then to call it red-shouldered because of not so great views and hurried time.  But after viewing it a couple of times, I believed it was and thus reported it to the net.  I am still pretty sure that the bird I reported was a red shouldered hawk.  After viewing the pictures of Tim, I am not sure this is the same bird.  The bird I saw was darker in the breast and had more zig zag throat.  I am not sure if the bird could be molting during this time and so a week or two later would cause it to be lighter.  Also, the bird I saw clearly had the crescent at the base of the primaries on the upper wing in flight.  But then looking at the pictures of Tim (without studying them in detail), it looks like this is a red shouldered too.  So having more expert opinions say potentially otherwise, makes me question my sighting.  However, this may not be the same bird either.   If anything, I am just a little better at ID with hawks due to this.  So whether it is an accurate ID or not, it is good to be birding.  My final assessment is that there was a red shouldered hawk there around February 10-15.
Remember Wayne Gretzky (and repeated often by Bob Bradley)--"You miss 100% of the shots you do not take"  So lets keep birding and not miss 100% of the birds we do not see.
Tony Jones

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