Special Post - Leucistic Red-tailed Hawk

On Sunday November 23rd Phil and I were out on another one of our legendary birding trips, this time it was in and around the Oakville/Burlington area.  Although it rained lightly off and on the whole morning we did manage to find a number of great birds including American Pipit, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Common Raven, Fox Sparrow, Snowy Owl, and an adult Bald Eagle.  As we returned home along the 401 we were commenting and looking at all the Red-tailed Hawks that lined both sides of the highway.  Suddenly we noticed a big white bird sitting in a tree on the opposite side of the road, I immediately thought it was a Snowy Owl, Phil on the other hand thought it looked more like an albino Red-tail.  We discussed what we had observed and thought it was worth getting off the highway, turning around and heading back down the other side.  As everyone knows, the 401, even on the best of days is as dangerous as Hell and not a safe place to stop anywhere on, especially with it's narrow shoulders.  Anyway, upon returning to the site where we spotted the bird, Phil put the blinkers on and we pulled off the road for a couple of quick photos out the window before we sped off again to merge back in to the traffic - whew!!!  The bird turned out to be a leucistic Red-tailed Hawk!  Nice call Phil!!!  Just as we were pulling away it flew a short distance to another tree and we could see that it had a few darker feathers out towards it's wing tips.  How cool, what a way to finish a great day!

Walter