MBC Dilute Plumage Bald profile photo.

MBC Dilute Plumage Bald profile photo.
the Lower K. Legend. MBC Photo

Friday, November 16, 2012

Sonoma County Ferruginous Hawks 2012

 Dark Morph Ferruginous Hawk
 
The Sonoma County East Railroad Avenue Ferruginous Hawks. The FeHa's of 2012,

This post feature's ...
Zachary Dautrich a fellow WCHW team member, naturalist, conservations, tracker, photographer, writer, inspirational tour guide, scientific researcher and quite a multi-talented resource. Please check out his work,  Here's his website: http://feralzach.wordpress.com





(above)This is the much talked about Dark "morph" or form Ferruginous Hawk (FEHA) that has been down by Penngrove, Sonoma County. Zach has a great shot here of the birds feathered legs! Very nice. Also notice the contrasting yellow gape against the birds dark body. Don't get alot of these, so it is a special one....

(below, here is a light form, or morph as some will call it)




(above) Light Form Ferruginous Hawk. They often perch on the ground like Northern Harriers and Rough-legged Hawks. These hawks have been seen running along the ground in pursuit of prey. Also notice this birds light colored head and its bellyband-less front.

(below) the dark form in flight, tricky against RLHA's and RTHA's

Main thing here for field work against other "hawks" is the only other two Dark Buteo species in the region right now would be Red-tailed and Ferrruginous hawks, and both have a vastly different tail, silhouette and head. If you like me to elaborate more please let me know. thanks larry.
 
Lots to talk about here. Amazing....Zach has documented quite a few raptors in our region, these photo's represent some of Feralzach's latest work. We are very lucky to have people out in the feild to capture our rare hawks on film and document where they are and what they need to survive, i.e. habitat and prey.

All photo credits © Zachary E. Dautrich 2012

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