[Birdtalk] More signs of spring

[Steve Coleman]

Since I have had several responses to my possible sighting of a Swainson's Hawk this week I will send this to everyone.

I live in Woods Cross in Davis County in the vicinity of between 800 and 925 West and between 1900 and 1800 South there is an old house that is being restored and it has large Chinese Elm Trees in the yard that attract a lot of different birds, this is where I saw it.

I will try to get some pictures this weekend. I have only seen it once this week but they have nested in the neighborhood in the same tree for the last two years. Last year they raised two babies and often flew over my yard because I had two Parrots in an outside cage that they would have loved to have had for lunch. I have some pictures on my web albums of the two fledglings that I took last fall sharing a rat on my neighbor's roof before they headed south. 

Here is the address http://picasaweb.google.com/stevecoleman1155. I hope my ID is correct and that I didn't just get too excited. If I find that it was a Rough-legged or Red-tail I will send an e-mail correcting myself, it wouldn't be the first time I have had egg on my face for getting excited and turning one species of bird into another. I haven't seen Red-tails in these trees before however up until 2 years ago there were Rough-legs that spent most of the winter there, though I haven't seen them recently. I will keep a lookout this weekend and update you all.

Regards
Steve

>>> Craig Fosdick <craig.fosdick at gmail.com> 2/25/2009 10:00 PM >>>

Hi Steve-

Regarding your Swainson's Hawk sighting; if it is indeed a Swainson's Hawk, I urge you to get some photos; I am sure the Utah Records Committee would appreciate photographic documentation of an out-of-season Swainson's Hawk.  Swainson's Hawks, as you probably know, winter in southern South America (primarily Argentina), and do not start migrating north until, well, right about now, mid-to-late February, and in general don't reach northern Utah and southern Idaho until early April; the floodgates open by mid- to late April when most have returned. Last year, when I was birding almost daily while pursuing a Cache Co. Big Year, I saw my first on April 5.

Although there are a few winter records for the US, most are from southern Florida or the Central Valley of California.  As an aside, I think Washington has just gotten its first overwintering record for Swainson's Hawk, and I believe Idaho has a record under review with convincing photographic evidence to corroborate the sighting.

Thanks for sharing and good birding, Craig.

Craig Fosdick
Logan, Utah.

On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 3:36 PM, Steve Coleman <scoleman at utah.gov> wrote:

The Swainson's Hawks that have nested in our neighborhood the last two years are back. I saw one of them yesterday evening fly into the tree where they nested last year.

Steve

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