AHY Red Tail Hawk
Mike, Vicky, and Becky may not have banded a lot today, but this adult Red Tail Hawk must have more than made up for it. Vicky said it was BIG and the photo certainly shows that. There is enough overlap in size of female and male RTHA's that the only definitive way to sex them is through blood work. So we always leave them as U (unidentified) for their sex.
As if this hawk wasn't enough to make their day, a HY Golden Eagle came over and put on a great show for them. Becky sent some photos of the action.
The weather was mostly clear and the wind picked up in the afternoon. It was a typical late migration pattern, where streams of hawks were beelining North to South over the west valley, with little to no interest in helping us out with our project.
Raptors banded:
1 HY female SSHA
1 AHY female SSHA
1 SY male SSHA
1 HY female COHA
1 AHY U RTHA
