\10/6 -- Batelle Darby marshland -- 3 hours at mid day, watching birds
migrating past, from the raised mound at car park to Teal/Harrier
marsh.  Indian Summer.

Osprey 4
Sharp shinned Hawk  3
Cooper's Hawk  3
Red shouldered Hawk  1
SWAINSON'S HAWK  1 (See below -- western sky, for 15 min., observed
with scope; a light morph juv. catching high flying insect prey high
over Batelle Creek ravine and ridge)
Red tailed Hawk  7  (5 juv., 2 ad.)
Kestrel  4
Merlin  3

American Golden plover  6, flyover, west to east.

Red headed Woodpecker  4 (juv.)
Yellow bellied sapsucker  7
Flicker  16

Blue-headed Vireo  2 (broad leaf trees at the car park)
Palm Western Warbler

Bobolink  30
meadowlark, sp. 22  (in 2s, 3s flyby south)

NOTES TAKEN SHORTLY AFTER SWAINSON,S HAWK
Light morph immature:  The back and upperwing show a two toned
appearance with a dark brown mantle but darker flight feathers.  The
upperparts were solid without mottling but showed a pale U shaped band
at base of tail.  The underparts ranged from being mottled brownish
below with patterning along the breast sides, pale breast, belly and
underwing coverts.  Dark flight feathers contrast with mantle above
and inner wing below.  Flight feathers were dark with barring below,
but paler than underwing coverts.  From below the dark flight feathers
look somewhat like a diffuse, dusky bread trailing edge to the wing.
The good thing about Swainson's is they can be identified by suite of
characters, the suite that first drew our attention to it.  A large,
slender trim buteo with long tapered wings, dark flight feathers, pale
U shaped on tail base: an elegant raptor.

Similar species:
Swainson's Hawk is one of the most distinctive raptors in North
America: elegant and slime, long pointed tapered wings, often held
raised.  Their mastery of the air, for such a large bird, reminds me
of a Mississippi Kite.  Light morph Swainson's is distinctive and
separated from Red tail by its pale underwing coverts that contrast
sharply with the dark flight feathers, the long pointed wings, with
dark (not silvery) flight feathers, Red tailed broader-winged,
broader-tailed shape. Immature Red-tailed also show a translucent
panel in the outer wing, unlike Swainson’s Hawk.   Red-tails don't
really hold a candle to the slender, light, maneuverable Swainson's.
Photos were less than useful.

It was highly aerial, regularly kiting and stooping at high elevations
to take one of the abundant dragonflies about. It would hover or soar,
orbiting in unsteady loops on smoothly raised wings. showed and
incredible light buoyant mastery of the air.  It often teetered side
to side like a harrier. The Swainson’s Hawk was actively feeding on
the abundant aerial  insects, especially dragonflies, catching and
eating them on the wing.  It pursued insects such as dragonflies or
dobsonflies while in flight, flapping little as it rides a wind
current and stoops upon a fly, grabbing it with its foot and
immediately transferring the prey to its bill.  It hovered like a
kestrel scanning from high altitude for prey, and soar low, stooping
abruptly when zeroing in on prey.  In the warm air, it would soar on
the rising air currents with wings and tail spread wide. At its
height, it would fold its primaries back, close its tails and soar
off, gliding a distance as it searches for another feeding spot.

Interestingly, the Detroit hawk watch, not far from Toledo, has been
recording Swainson's Hawks for years, often a dozen or more/fall.  I
would guess that it should at least be annual in NW OH.
In past years I have seen many Swainson's, mostly in mid west but also
in the east and southeast, and have studied perhaps all likely
conegers i.e. Northern Harrier, Broad-winged Hawk, White-tailed Hawk,
and Red tailed Hawk (in its vast varieties, incl. morphs, subspecies,
races, intermediates, genetic mutations, who knows).  We have seen 8
(6 fall; 2 spring) Swainson's Hawks here:  1 juv. light, 9/26/12; 1
dark imm., 4/3 and 1 light imm. 4/7/13; 1 light juv., 9/19, 2 light
ad., 10/18 and 1 light juv., 11/15/14; 1 light juv., 10/7/16..
-- 
David and Patty Tan
Columbus
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