While birding for the GBBC this weekend, we found another completely white leucitic Red-tailed Hawk on Black Rd, Town of Hector. This makes the 4th completely white red-tail this winter that we have found or know of. Others were an albino near the race track (Watkins Glen), one leucistic bird in Candor, one in Whitney point and this latest one a few miles from home.
We worked with eagles and other raptors in the Chesapeake Bay area and banded thousands at Cape May for several years before arriving here in 1986 and had never seen such white raptors. In fact, the only leucistic bird in our memory was a partial on a cardinal in Maryland. Since then, we had seen only a few partially leucistic passerines in this area and one other leucistic hawk (the Ithaca Red-tail of a few years ago). Now in one season here are 4! Couple that with the several reports of leucism in passerines and one begins to wonder... We also had a rare pheasant yesterday, a Bald Eagle adult over Ed Gates' farm in Burdett Saturday afternoon and 190 Snow Buntings on Bergen Rd which is about a mile from here. During our road trip we also found some 2,900 Redheads and 99 Horned Larks among the many other excellent birds.. Best, John and Sue -- John and Sue Gregoire Field Ornithologists Kestrel Haven Avian Migration Observatory 5373 Fitzgerald Road Burdett,NY 14818-9626 Website: http://www.empacc.net/~kestrelhaven/ "Conserve and Create Habitat" -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
