I went to the Columbus Airport this afternoon to pick up my younger brother, and as we were leaving, my little boy (2 yrs old) kept insisting that he wanted to see an airplane! So since nothing was immediately pressing, I turned south onto Stelzer Rd from International Drive instead of getting on 670 toward home. As we passed the end of the runway, I noticed a very light hawk hunting over the grass just inside the airport property. What mostly impressed me on my first glance was that its head was very pale. After turning around, I pulled over (hoping to let my son see an airplane take off, but also to see the hawk). The distal half of the tail was a pale pink and horizontally barred, fading into pure white without bars at the base of the tail. There was heavy white mottling breaking up the brown on the back, and the head was mostly white, except for some brown just in front of and behind the eye, on the nape, a darkish malar, and a little streaking on the top of the crown. I guess the other way to say that is it had very pale/creamy white eyebrows, cheeks, and throat. The breast and belly were all white, except for some dark streaking on the flanks. After consulting my Peterson Field Guides "Hawks" book and some online pictures and commentary, I believe it was an immature Krider's Hawk, or possibly an intergrade Krider's x Eastern Red-tailed Hawk. Again, this bird was right at the west end of the runway that lies south of and parallel to International Dr, right along Stelzer Rd. Cool hawk--I'm glad my son was so persistent in asking to see an airplane! -Nate Nye Hilliard ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]