This droopy Red-tail juvenile Cooper’s Hawk (I have several veteran birders telling me why) was spreading out his feathers for the solar radiation leaking through the cloud layer this morning (Thursday, Jan 21). Apparently his parents did not teach him to roost in a dense conifer on rainy night.
From one reader: “Your hawk is actually a juvenile Cooper’s Hawk. Red-shouldered Hawk has longer wings and shorter tail (this bird has short wings and long tail of accipiter). Red-shouldered has more contrast in the barring of the wings, and the pale bands in the tail of a Red-shouldered are much narrower than the dark bands. This bird has very broad pale bands in the tail. The size, the fairly thin breast streaks that somewhat disappear as you go down to the belly, the rounded tail (I know that’s hard to judge in this position!), and the buffy face all point to Cooper’s vs Sharpy,”
That’s Matt Hunter telling me this is a young Coop. At the time I noticed the vertical chest streaking, I just didn’t study this carefully enough and certainly didn’t consider the fine points of tail banding. Grateful to weather and the hawk for great plumage display and to a digital LUmix that can work 
well despite my amateur camera abilities.
These ducks were all paddling about the Yamhill city sewer ponds. Every day there seem to be more scaup now.
I either saw the same Peregrine twice or saw two birds in proximity. Each sighting was north of McMinnville, the first along Westside Road, than a little later due east in a tree along Highway 47. So many temporary ponds in flooded fields with so many ducks the Peregrines must have a hard time deciding where to hunt.
Westside Road, Yamhill County, Yamhill, Oregon, US
Jan 8, 2016 10:00 AM – 10:15 AM
Comments: flood pond north of Carlton with many ducks
8 species
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) X
Ring-necked Duck (Aythya collaris) X
Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola) X
Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) 1
American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) 1
Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) 1
Steller’s Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri) 1
European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) X
Yamhill Sewage Ponds (restricted access), Yamhill, Oregon, US
Jan 8, 2016 10:15 AM – 10:40 AM. 11 species
Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) 40
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) 2
Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata) 140
Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis) 60
Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola) 50
Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) 1
Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto) X
Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) 2
Western Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica) 1
European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) X
Golden-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla) 11
Towheeblog 
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