On Saturday, February 1, 2003, Paul Napier, President of the Raptor Society of Metropolitan Washington, and his wife Lois came by Touchstone Farm to trap, band, and photograph a rare white colored Red Tailed Hawk that has recently taken up residence in these parts. Paul is licensed by the US Fish and Wildlife Department to capture, record, and band birds.
The Napiers came out in the early morning to set a few hawk traps and see if they could lure the bird down to investigate and let us take a good look a him (or her as it turned out). I was a bit concerned that they might not see the hawk at all, but she showed up right on time. Unfortunately she never came close enough to get a good look at her, much less a get a picture, but they did confirm that it was a white (semi-albino) Red Tailed Hawk.
On the other hand, a beautiful Red Shouldered Hawk was more obliging and came to investigate the traps. She was caught, measured, banded, photographed, and released.
The Napiers are going to come out again and try to document the very striking and rare white hawk (who is currently the bane of my bantam chickens), and I hope to have photos of that sometime soon. (click on the photos for a larger image).
