dragon@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Sam Conway) (11/03/90)
A week ago, I had the tremendous pleasure of spotting a completely albino redtailed hawk in a small town in central Vermont. We received a call from a woman who swore that there was a white gyrfalcon sitting in a tree outside her house, and that it had been there for several hours. A white gyr in Vermont is not exactly commonplace, so I was dis- patched to either confirm or correct the ID. When I arrived, the bird was still there, but a good 1000 yards away from the driveway. Through the field glasses I saw a large snowy white bird with some grey markings on its chest. I was about to pronounce it a slightly-too-far-south snowy owl when it suddenly took flight. Definitely not an owl! It rose up, soaring, over the trees and dropped down into a small valley. I jumped into my car and tore off down the road after it. After nearly wrecking myself several times while trying to keep the quarry in sight, I finally got myself directly underneath and stopped. When it had first taken flight, I saw it very clearly from behind, and saw that its back was totally white, with no markings at all. From below, it was white with only some vague gray markings on its belly. It had a definite buteo shape, and as it banked into the sunlight I caught a flash of very pale orange on its outspread tail. Albino redtail, unless anyone else has a better clue. Not totally unheard of, but it's the first one I'd ever seen. Where's a camera when you need one? -- Sam Conway * What shape do you usually have? dragon@eleazar.dartmouth.edu * Mickey Mouse shape? Smarties Chemistry Dept., Dartmouth College, NH * shape? Amphibious landing craft Vermont Raptor Center (VINS) * shape? Poke in the eye shape?
grp@Unify.com (Greg Pasquariello) (11/06/90)
In article <25528@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>, dragon@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Sam Conway) writes: > A week ago, I had the tremendous pleasure of spotting a completely albino > redtailed hawk in a small town in central Vermont. > Ed Treacy, a friend of mine in NY, once spotted an albino red-tail on a christmas count. Thinking it was a white gyrfalcon, he screeched on the car brakes, jumped out of the car, swung his scope up and looked at the bird. Unfortunately, his scope was mounted on a rifle stock, and the bird was perched just outside the Mid Orange Correctional Facility! Needless to say, the prison guards were pissed. > -- > Sam Conway * What shape do you usually have? > dragon@eleazar.dartmouth.edu * Mickey Mouse shape? Smarties > Chemistry Dept., Dartmouth College, NH * shape? Amphibious landing craft > Vermont Raptor Center (VINS) * shape? Poke in the eye shape? -- -Greg Pasquariello grp@unify.com