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Morning Open Thread. Banded Red-tailed Hawk, found and reported, deceased, sadly. [1]

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Date: 2022-10-15

NOTE: THIS IS A REPRINT OF A DIARY PUBLISHED OCTOBER 11, 2022, UNDER BACKYARD SCIENCE AS “THE DAILY BUCKET”

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2022

QUINCY, CA

I went out for a look-see bicycle ride in the afternoon, not a time of day I usually go out. But this time of year the sun is lower in the sky and in an acceptable position for my angles of sight for photography along the route I ride. There’s a stretch of road that has been very good for hawk sighting in the past years, around this time of year.

Morning Open Thread is a daily, copyrighted post from a host of editors and guest writers. We support our community, invite and share ideas, and encourage thoughtful, respectful dialogue in an open forum. This is a post where you can come to share what’s on your mind and stay for the expansion. The diarist is on California time and gets to take a nap when he needs to, or may just wander off and show up again later. So you know, it's a feature, not a bug. Grab your supportive indulgence(s) of choice and join us, please. And if you’re brand new to Morning Open Thread, then Hail and Well Met, new Friend.

The hawk-watching begins as soon as I’m outside; in the past I’ve seen hawks in the trees and on the phone poles immediately outside my apartment. Today when I spied the RT of this story all I could do was lament. There it was, just off the roadway at the bottom of a phone/power pole. Curiosity took over so I stepped off the bicycle for a close look. Oh. Wow. Banded! Now, can I get the number off the band, photographed even? Yes, easily enough as it turned out. And a “first-ever” experience for me.

Trigger warning: dead hawk.

In the exact position as discovered. It was only after I saw that the bird was banded that I thought to turn on my camera’s Date/Time stamp.

Now the Date/Time stamp is on, for documentary purposes.

Power pole i.d. for verification of location documentation, if ever necessary.

Further location documentation.

Upon looking closely at the bird (I was curious to see if there were injuries) I noticed the band. [Orange circle in this photo; CLICK TO ENLARGE]

I rolled the bird over so I could take better photos of the band, but otherwise did not disturb or move the carcass any more than that.

With this series of photos I have the entire band number (1957-24828), an 800 telephone number and a web address (www.reportband.gov). I’m good to go.

After going through the reporting steps at the website,

U.S. Geological Survey

Eastern Ecological Science Center

at the Patuxent Research Refuge

Bird Banding Laboratory

I received this email in response:

The Lat/Long coordinates, incidentally, I got by using Google Earth.

And that was that. Duly reported, I done my good deed for the day. However, the ride for the day was not over; maybe I could find something else, something more. And I did.

As I pedaled on and came past the sawmill, a Red-shouldered Hawk flew up off the ground and took a most convenient, for me, pose-perch. A very nice and rewarding way to cap the day’s excursion.

What’s happening out there, MOTlies?

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/10/15/2128470/-Morning-Open-Thread-Banded-Red-tailed-Hawk-found-and-reported-deceased-sadly

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