lbechtle@uceng.UC.EDU (laurie bechtler) (04/27/91)
What bird is the most likely candidate for the ones I saw recently on a highway trip in Ohio? Due to the gloomy, cloudy weather, the low light level and backlighting made the birds look mostly dark with indistinct markings. (Plus I couldn't slow down and get a better look!) Anyway, they were smallish kite-like birds, hovering (flying into the wind) above the median strip some 25 feet up. The candidates from my field guides suggest a merlin or kestrel, although it seems that those wouldn't look so uniformly dark. Maybe the lighting was just bad enough. I saw four of them (not together). Thanks for ideas.
wb9omc@dynamo.ecn.purdue.edu (Duane P Mantick) (04/30/91)
lbechtle@uceng.UC.EDU (laurie bechtler) writes: >What bird is the most likely candidate for the ones I saw >recently on a highway trip in Ohio? Due to the gloomy, cloudy >weather, the low light level and backlighting made the birds >look mostly dark with indistinct markings. (Plus I couldn't >slow down and get a better look!) Anyway, they were smallish >kite-like birds, hovering (flying into the wind) above the >median strip some 25 feet up. The candidates from my field >guides suggest a merlin or kestrel, although it seems that >those wouldn't look so uniformly dark. Maybe the lighting >was just bad enough. I saw four of them (not together). >Thanks for ideas. This was most likely the Kestrel. On the wire, (where they seem to sit a lot) they resemble a mourning dove from a distance but I believe they sit more erect than the dove, which sits with more of a slope to its back. Kestrels are tremendous aviators, I have seen them hover in virtually the same spot, despite a stiff breeze (bird scientists: are they able to compensate for a crosswind? It certainly seems like it....). We have quite a few of them in the sticks a few miles from Purdue, and they are a pleasure to watch. It is not at all uncommon to see them working the median strips - I have also seen a pair working a field near the Purdue Airport. Perhaps someone with specific knowledge of Kestrel habits can confirm or deny this - I have observed that if they hover and decide not to dive for the kill, they seem like they like to circle around and come back to a spot perhaps some distance *behind* where they last were. (behind meaning with reference to the birds original hovering spot) The ones I have seen also seem occasionally very "ballsy", in the sense that they don't take any crap off of larger birds (ever see a Red-Tailed Hawk running for it's life from a Kestrel? I have...) Duane