Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unmvax!nmtsun!john
From: john@nmtsun.nmt.edu (John Shipman)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Can you identify this mystery raptor?
Keywords: falcon raptor
Message-ID: <2710@nmtsun.nmt.edu>
Date: 8 Jun 89 19:55:50 GMT
References: <2795@helios.ee.lbl.gov>
Reply-To: john@nmtsun.nmt.edu (John Shipman)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Zoological Data Processing
Lines: 23

David Mostardi (mostardi@ux1.lbl.gov) writes:
>On Tuesday 6/6...An unknown raptor flew overhead.
>...The shape suggested a falcon: sleek wings,
>strong wingbeats, and occasional steep dives...
>call was a short ascending squawk, perhaps 10/min.
>...white 'elbow' patches, both on the bottom and tops of the
>wings.  I can't swear to a white throat patch.

Did you consider the kites?  I saw a bird yesterday and
was trying to make it into a falcon because it had
pointed wings and a longtail, but its wingbeats came
steadily and slowly, while the big falcons tend to
flap in bursts and then glide.

The fact that you couldn't see any field marks suggests
that maybe the bird was not strongly patterned.  I think
the bird you saw might have been the same species I saw:
Mississippi Kite.
-- 
John Shipman/Zoological Data Processing/Socorro, New Mexico
USENET: ucbvax!unmvax!nmtsun!john  CSNET: john@nmtsun.nmt.edu ``A lesson from
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