\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 [log in to unmask] ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: listserv.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]