All change at Goshawk site: adult female reappears, juveniles move further afield

Adult female Goshawk, 11.viii.2016, N Apennines

Events around the Goshawk site seem to have taken a different course since the beginning of August.  Juvenile calling has greatly declined in frequency, and the absence of the typical sudden outbreak of shrill screaming from more than one bird, which I assumed arose from a level of competition between juveniles present for food items brought to the area, is very noticeable.  In recent days there have been some wailing calls, apparently from a single juvenile, and a little obvious excitement apparently signalling a food delivery, but vocalisations have been very widely separated over the day (and possibly a different juvenile at different times).  I infer that the juveniles are tending to spend much of the day, possibly entire days, at other locations, and I have indeed seen juveniles in flight at nearby locations.  The single juvenile I saw in flight at the site on August 4th seemed a little hesitant and unsteady and soon disappeared back into the woods; I wondered if this might have been the third and later juvenile, whose presence I have suspected from differences in calling but have never been able to confirm visually.

Juvenile Goshawk, 9.viii.2016, N Apennines

On the 9th, I saw one juvenile come up just before 10.00 after several wailing calls spread over the previous two hours, but no apparent excitement over a possible food delivery.  This bird circled quite slowly up, soaring without visible effort, while moving in an uphill direction until I lost it a great height.  A second juvenile came up about two hours later, after similar sparse calling, but with four high pitched wails perhaps indicating food availability.  This one soared up a little way and then moved directly off overhead in a different direction to the first (it is possible this was the same individual as the first, having returned unseen, but I suspect not).  Consistent with the growing tendency for fully independent flight and daily activity, as noted in the previous post, I have not seen two juveniles up and flying in the valley together since August 3nd.

The adult female Goshawk, 11.viii.2016, N Apennines

And, really remarkable, I saw what I believe is the adult female of the nesting pair in flight for the first time since 7th June, a little more than two months!

Considering the enormous number of hours over this period that I have spent at watchpoints overlooking the nesting valley, I can only infer that she undertakes almost all her activity entirely within or under the canopy.  Of course, during much of this time she has been at or close to the nest.  But, apart from one possible glimpse of her in flight back in early April, this has been the only certain sighting of her until today.

The mystery pale bird

Curiously, just before I saw her rising over the nest site, I had been trying to make out some detail of a large pale bird sitting exposed at the top of a tree on the far side of the valley, beyond the nest site from where I was sitting.  I had been thinking this was probably the very pale Honey-buzzard I saw moving among trees nearby just a couple of days ago, preening in the sun after the torrential rainstorm last night.  I did not directly see the perched bird become the flying bird, but it vanished from its treetop at the same time, and it took several second looking at the (distant) soaring bird to realise it was a Goshawk not the Honey-buzzard: somewhat similar structure, big tail, sometimes fanned, sometimes twisting in flight, similar dorsal colour. So perhaps it was the Goshawk sunning herself?

The only images I have of her are very poor mainly because of excess distance and (not today) bad light, but I think there are just about enough similarities in shape and moult state to accept that the same individual is involved.

Adult Goshawk, believed to be the nesting female. While chasing the adult male (or an intruding male?) on 7 June 2016, left; post-nesting, 11 August 2016. The short primaries seen in June appear to have grown fully in the later image. N Apennines.

So, evidence of a marked shift in events around the Goshawk nest.  It feels as if the tight bounds of family life during the nesting season are starting to disintegrate; the sudden appearance of the adult female seems to signal that she's done with all that for another year!

Addendum. 13.viii.2016
Something else a bit different yesterday.  Silence from the area around the nest site for most of the morning, then several "kek-kek-kek" calls, full and strong, sounding like an adult and very possibly the female.  Then just about 15 minutes later, she (or he) let out a single "wee-oo" wailing call, again full and strong.  Like turning a switch, it seemed to electrify the whole valley, already simmering nicely under a high sun.  Or was it just me that was electrified?  But the adult was answered almost immediately by a wail from another bird probably several hundred metres down the valley, and just afterwards, by another bird from the opposite valley slope perhaps five hundred metres away.  About five minutes later she called again and again was answered from two other locations.  And on several occasions afterwards, there was this clear response by the other two Goshawks, which I assumed would be the juveniles.

I had never before heard this obvious communication between the Goshawks that was not tied up with competition for food and did not result in the calling birds converging on wherever the food was available. This time the 'answering' birds stayed right where they were.

Male & female juvenile Sparrowhawks, 12.viii.2016

And just after this (which did not end in any of the vocalising birds in visible flight) two Sparrowhawks (image left), I believe male and female juveniles, were flying around immediately above the Goshawk nest site, one of them hawking for flying insects and both occasionally swooping on each other and grappling, just like the young Goshawks over the past couple of weeks.  I was expecting, hoping even, that their display might bring an adult Gos up to object, but no!