This hawk was sitting upright on power lines next to a field at the corner of Grand Ronde and Hebo roads. The field had recently been baled and had several large haystacks, each with a Red-tailed Hawk atop that periodically swooped down to nab something in the field. There was no place to pull over when I saw this bird on the wire so Johnny put on his flashers and sat in the middle of the road while I took a photo out the windshield. Just as I took the picture, the hawk leaned forward and lifted its wings, as in this photo, and took off. It flew out in a half circle and landed back on the wire in front of us but there were cars coming both directions so we left. The photo was taken at 6:15 p.m. with the sun low in the sky shining on the back of the hawk. I *think* that's the reason for the apparent white speckles on the feathers of the wing. I thought I knew what this was at the time so we went on home after a long day of birding for the Yamhill County NAMC to see if any birds had shown up at our farm that were not around in the morning before we left. Now that I see this photo, I'm not so sure my id was correct.
I would *really* appreciate any comments as to what this hawk is and why. Thanks in advance!
