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A hawk, an owl, or a flying chupacabra?

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Bob G

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Nov 4, 2009, 8:59:11 PM11/4/09
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http://picasaweb.google.com/rlloydgeorge/MoreWildBirdsInArizona#5400409794429156898

I have to get my self some better equipment. The maximum telephoto
zoom (18x) is only about 200 mm and it just is not sufficient to take
a sharp image atop a 100 foot pine. It was about an hour after sunrise
in the center of Glendale, AZ when I noticed what I took to be a hawk
way on top a tall pine. So I took several shots at maximum zoom. In
reviewing the images in the computer I noticed those eyes. What did I
capture? The color is very accurate if that is any help.

Bob G

Jerry Avins

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Nov 4, 2009, 9:11:35 PM11/4/09
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The focus seems a little soft, but the bird looks like some kind of hawk
to me.

Jerry
--
Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get.
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Larry Sheldon

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Nov 4, 2009, 9:29:03 PM11/4/09
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Jerry Avins wrote:
> Bob G wrote:
>> http://picasaweb.google.com/rlloydgeorge/MoreWildBirdsInArizona#5400409794429156898
>>
>>
>> I have to get my self some better equipment. The maximum telephoto
>> zoom (18x) is only about 200 mm and it just is not sufficient to take
>> a sharp image atop a 100 foot pine. It was about an hour after sunrise
>> in the center of Glendale, AZ when I noticed what I took to be a hawk
>> way on top a tall pine. So I took several shots at maximum zoom. In
>> reviewing the images in the computer I noticed those eyes. What did I
>> capture? The color is very accurate if that is any help.
>
> The focus seems a little soft, but the bird looks like some kind of hawk
> to me.

Looks like a Kestrel to me. Peterson "Western" 3rd edition page 187

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Kestrel/id


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Bob G

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Nov 4, 2009, 9:39:09 PM11/4/09
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On Nov 4, 7:29 pm, Larry Sheldon <lfshel...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Jerry Avins wrote:
> > Bob G wrote:
> >>http://picasaweb.google.com/rlloydgeorge/MoreWildBirdsInArizona#54004...

>
> >> I have to get my self some better equipment. The maximum telephoto
> >> zoom (18x) is only about 200 mm and it just is not sufficient to take
> >> a sharp image atop a 100 foot pine. It was about an hour after sunrise
> >> in the center of Glendale, AZ when I noticed what I took to be a hawk
> >> way on top a tall pine. So I took several shots at maximum zoom. In
> >> reviewing the images in the computer I noticed those eyes. What did I
> >> capture? The color is very accurate if that is any help.
>
> > The focus seems a little soft, but the bird looks like some kind of hawk
> > to me.
>
> Looks like a Kestrel to me.  Peterson "Western" 3rd edition page 187
>
> http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Kestrel/id
>
> --
> Requiescas in pace o email              Two identifying characteristics
>                                               of System Administrators:
> Ex turpi causa non oritur actio        Infallibility, and the ability to
>                                               learn from their mistakes.
> Eppure si rinfresca
>
> ICBM Targeting Information:
>        http://tinyurl.com/4sqczs
>        http://tinyurl.com/7tp8ml

Thank you, I looked in my guide (American Museum of Natural History
"Birds of North America" and I have to agree. The height given of 9"
looks about right given that it is in a pine tree and the needles give
a reference for size. It will help when I have been at this longer and
gain an idea of what I am looking at.

Bob G

Larry Sheldon

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Nov 4, 2009, 10:08:48 PM11/4/09
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The clue to me is the sideburns. And they somehow look more "refined"
or something.

Funny story (I think)--One of the women that run the bird-feed-supply
stores where we trade was associated with a raptor rescue operation
("was" because of the person with the license moved away) and they used
to do "show and tell" things at the library.

Among the birds on display at one I went to was a female Kestrel that
had been "rescued" inappropriately when she was very young, and we were
told that she could not be released (all of the birds can not be
released for one reason or another) because she didn't know she was a
Kestrel or a female or anything (so the story was--I don't know much
about that.

(The people with birds for display on their fore-arm came up one at a
time and stood in the front of the group as their situation was
explained and a little about each bird.)

When young male kestrel came up was brought up he suddenly spotted the
female two or three down the line, he craned one way and another trying
to see around the people between him and the lady, preened, and said
pretty clearly "Maybe she doesn't know who she is or why she is here but
_I_ do!"

Rick

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Nov 4, 2009, 10:51:20 PM11/4/09
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Looks like a Kestrel to me

--

Rick
Fargo, ND
N 46�53'251"
W 096�48'279"


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http://www.ussliberty.org/


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jadel

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Nov 5, 2009, 7:40:13 AM11/5/09
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It is a kestrel. But back to the subject line. There are flying
chupacabras, the caprimulgiformes, AKA nightjars, nighthawks, etc.

Of course they don't literally suck milk from goats.

J. Del Col

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