February 18th 2007. East Meadows, Northampton, MA. Rough-legged Hawk. Buteo lagopus. Juvenile light-morph. Called in at the East Meadows on a blustery afternoon and found this young Rough-legged Hawk being mobbed by American Crows high over the airfield. Really nice bird, and can be aged as a juvenile by obvious whitish patches at the base of the primaries on the upperwing, and rather diffuse dark trailing edge to the underwings. Other raptors in the area included a couple of Red-tails and a male American Kestrel. Also of note, 25 Horned Larks and a Snow Bunting. A nice male Northern Harrier was quartering a field off Route 9 in Hadley as I drove home to Amherst. Images taken using Canon Powershot A540 through Leica 8 x 42 binoculars. |
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