In Search of Rough-legged Hawks - 06 Feb 2023

A pair of Rough-legged Hawks were reported Saturday out at Crosswinds Marsh (Clark and Ash Rds) and I failed to find either. I even missed the Northern Shrike. Again. And again. Then, another Rough-legged Hawk was reported at Sterling State Park yesterday, so today I decided to go on a quest.

I drove by Crosswinds Marsh itself and did find ~2000 Herring Gulls of all age-groups resting on the ice and flying back and forth to/from the landfill. Grabbing the scope I pored through all of the birds and found only a single Lesser Black-backed Gull. I digiscoped it at 60X on the scope for an EFL of ~2400 mm.

From Sterling State Park I headed to Pt. Mouillee SGA and the Antennae Farm. Turning down Labo Rd. I spotted a dark raptor perched atop the trees just west of the Antennae Farm fence-line. It was worth pulling over and grabbing the scope; a dark-phased Rough-legged Hawk! 

I decided to digiscope it from approximately 400 yds away. With the Sony a9 and 40mm lens on the scope at 60X and 1.5 crop factor I had an EFL ~3600mm! It was enough to verify ID: Short bill, yellow cere, white patch at base of bill, white patch on back of head (which Jerry Liguori mentions is a way of identifying adult dark-morph RLHA), solid brown-black chest (which differentiates from a mottled chest of a Harlan's RTHA), white tail with bold black terminal band and bold stripes (which also differentiates from the thin dark bands on a Harlan's RTHA). 

Continuing on down Labo back to the Turnpike I drove down Roberts Rd. looking for activity. None along Roberts Road down to the parking lot next to the South Causeway. Heading back along Rheaume Rd. I saw one Red-tailed Hawk fly over the rock quarry.

Deciding to look for the Rough-legged Hawk again I headed back to Haggerman Rd. and found an American Kestrel atop the pole next to the driveway into the Antennae Farm. It flew before I could take any pics but landed in the treetops a bit farther west.

I saw the hawk perched about a quarter-mile back along the west side of the Antennae Farm fence-line and ran into Geoff Malosh just as I was heading out with the scope. But, it flew back toward us as I walked the fence-line and disappeared out over the field next to Labo Rd. We could not relocate it.

With the bridge out at Riverside Park I was unable to check out Campau Rd. and Lake Erie Metropark to I headed to Flat Rock for lunch and a trip home.