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<p><font size="+1">Good evening, I had a nice response to my
question this morning regarding my possible sighting of a
Northern Harrier. Sometimes just having another person point
out a feature of one bird over another is enough to clarify what
you saw better. <br>
</font></p>
<p><font size="+1">Many responded that I might have seen a Cooper's
Hawk. I have had many looks at Cooper's in the past, and in
fact had posted suggesting I might have a nesting pair in our
neighborhood. That actually turned out to be them checking out
an old Crows nest for possible use, but the local Crows
convinced them our neighborhood was unsuitable, I guess. They
were here only about 4 days before moving on. So the idea that
the white tail patch was possibly the tail coverts of a Coopers
sent me back to studying photos of each bird, and then the
answer is no--they were not the same. (Speaking of which,
photos of a bird flying away from you are tough to come by.)</font></p>
<p><font size="+1">The bird I saw had a distinct white patch above
the tail--lower back, if you will. It was smooth in appearance,
not fluffed out feathers. The gray color was similar to pigeon
grey, or dove grey, not showing barring on the back or wings
from the angle I saw. I saw one photo of an adult male Northern
Harrier which referred to it as 'the grey ghost', and the
coloring was much like what I saw. Knowing that the bird keeps
a habitat of wetlands, I can only say that I live within a half
mile in any direction of a small park lake, the Minnesota River,
and a gravel pit converted to a swimming pond with a slew off
one side. If a bird were to be traveling and using familiar
terrain to move between, it wouldn't be out of the question that
it could pass my neighborhood. It doesn't explain why we found
a pheasant tail feather in our front yard earlier this spring,
but I digress...</font></p>
<p><font size="+1">Thanks again for everyone's help; Cindy in North
Mankato<br>
</font></p>
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