http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/26/science/26raptor.html?_r=1

Mandy Weston stood on a ridge in the Manzano mountains, 9,000 feet above the Rio
Grande Valley, grasping the talons of a juvenile northern harrier in her right
hand.

“These are the supermodels of the raptor world,” she said admiringly. “Tall and
thin.” She playfully rotated the bird’s body to reveal that its head remained in
a fixed position, like that of an owl.

Ms. Weston is the public liaison for a five-person crew that is spending 10
weeks on this mountain observing and banding hawks as they migrate from North
America down into Mexico and points south. This is the first northern harrier of
the migration season, and the team is ecstatic.