dadizgr8t
January 13th, 2008, 09:47 PM
HI, I live in Fort Smith, AR and am having a time identifying a hawk I glimpsed yesterday and early this morning. Yesterday as I was pulling into my driveway I saw the tail end of a hawk diving into this large bush in my yard where house sparrows reside. The tail appeared fan shaped with a white tip and 3 broad dark bands. I grabbed my camera out of my purse and thought how cool that would be to get a picture of this hawk tail sticking out of my bush, but of course the Hawk dove in to the bush and as I got close (and actually was afraid of getting a talon in my face) the rustling increased and the hawk shot out so quickly I could not see it. I was so disappointed! This morning I was looking out the back window with my binoculars and there it was sitting on my grape arbor! I couldn't believe I would have another chance at identifying it. I noticed it was a crow sized hawk, a lot smaller than the red-tailed I have seen yet it had a white breast with streaking and in that sense the front of this hawk reminded me of a red-tail.. It flew off pretty quick and then I saw it across the street in a tree directly across the road from my sparrow bush. I ran out in my pajamas, robe and slippers with -my binocs and camera (quite a sight I'm sure if the neighbor's saw me) and it's back was to me. It had a dark back and looked like white spots on it. I tried to get around to the front side of it and it looked at me and flew off. Any ideas?? Help! I've been looking up Hawks all day; I think maybe it was a Cooper's hawk except the spotty looking back doesn't fit.
Dadizgr8t
Dadizgr8t