tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68607263317016000402024-03-11T03:25:04.129-07:00Goshawk notesLooking for Goshawks in an Apennine valleyBrian Groombridgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653209203331470836noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6860726331701600040.post-58404198726457570752018-07-22T03:53:00.000-07:002018-07-22T03:53:15.051-07:00Another Goshawk - Honey-buzzard encounter<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUsxEDQIHGZvDN7x8J2vGtmrfgSQAp9tzBcWpir2PhyphenhyphenkwwRcbwvsp8fWxvQhRqKMPCc8pnaHbSpLgLXirKRuJDIQT1Em9vn5NwFI_c5h85fFiG35JIn1eJmvLMVgDTV0EsmHLJEprFEuE/s1600/P7170277ed2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1039" data-original-width="450" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUsxEDQIHGZvDN7x8J2vGtmrfgSQAp9tzBcWpir2PhyphenhyphenkwwRcbwvsp8fWxvQhRqKMPCc8pnaHbSpLgLXirKRuJDIQT1Em9vn5NwFI_c5h85fFiG35JIn1eJmvLMVgDTV0EsmHLJEprFEuE/s640/P7170277ed2.jpg" width="275" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Honey-buzzard above, Goshawk below,<br />showing general spatial relationship<br />during flight. 17.vii.18. N Apennines.</span></b></td></tr>
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A few days ago (17 July 2018) I was sitting on a high rock up on the watershed ridge, about half a kilometre from my usual 'white scar' watchpoint, and a little higher, with a panoramic view over the main valley here. I was looking primarily for Honey-buzzards in flight, in a period when breeding birds should be making food deliveries to their nest. Goshawks were somewhat 'off the radar' because I had not seen or heard one, apart from the distant glimpse reported in the previous post, since late June.<br />
<br />
Just after noon I spotted a distant raptor as it rose above the skyline, then a second close below it. The first was certainly a Honey-buzzard, a very pale bird circling unusually briskly. My impression of the second was of another medium-large raptor, dark above and pale below, and showing a large white area around the tail base which immediately suggested the untertail coverts of a Goshawk, always so eye-catching when flared. The distance, estimated between 1 and 1.5 km, did not allow me to see much detail through 8x binoculars (I don't use a scope), but the second bird was not moving as might be expected for a Goshawk and I realised it was carrying some substantial prey item, perhaps mainly white. It soon moved back down below the skyline and flew fast but with laboured wingbeats as it descended out of sight into the head of one of the smaller side valleys. The Honey-buzzard followed the same general course, keeping 50-100 metres above the second bird.<br />
<br />
The narrative I immediately concocted in my head was that the second bird was a Goshawk that had snatched a recently hatched Honey-buzzard chick from the nest, and was carrying it back to its own young (Goshawks seem consistently to breed relatively late here, with young flying in late July).<br />
<br />
This little story is entirely plausible, but I did not see the actual predation event, and the images I got of the distant birds behind heat haze certainly do not contain any useful details on the hawk's prey, so I'll never know for sure if my script is accurate. Perhaps the proximity of first and second birds was just chance? More prosaically, perhaps the Goshawk prey was someone's white chicken?<br />
<br />
Nevertheless, I'm almost convinced: I have never seen a Honey-buzzard follow a Goshawk while flying in such an erratic and seemingly agitated way, surely (?) consistent with being a recently-deprived parent.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7FayDl8wkGD0bApocNQPw7MpbBJ-iPT2V1EaPYYyl14qFEV8RE2t0e0wGwrkNxGPq8_kAV3CT86yiGSQKcPFl3dGj5qBh-xZM5BLF_uYD3GxSx8wsUrQVnPNuOcNkG35_zpPlYN0QDuo/s1600/2018-07-19_095857an.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="261" data-original-width="1176" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7FayDl8wkGD0bApocNQPw7MpbBJ-iPT2V1EaPYYyl14qFEV8RE2t0e0wGwrkNxGPq8_kAV3CT86yiGSQKcPFl3dGj5qBh-xZM5BLF_uYD3GxSx8wsUrQVnPNuOcNkG35_zpPlYN0QDuo/s640/2018-07-19_095857an.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">The Goshawk with prey, earliest image on far left; far right image shortly before descent to woods. Dangling legs belong to prey. Orange line added to images indicates level of the Goshawk tail (not always clear in these small images). 17.vii.2018. N Apennines.</span></b></td></tr>
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The one secure inference to be made from these observations is that a pair of Northern Goshawks is breeding successfully not very far from the nest site of recent seasons (assuming that the hawk is unlikely to carry a large prey item far unless there is an active nest to provision). I could not tell for sure if the Goshawk went down into the upper part of what I've started to call 'Goshawk Valley', perhaps 250 metres or so further up from the more usual site, or the nearby upper part of the valley on the far side of its most prominent bounding ridge. And so far as I know there is no potential watchpoint, elevated and unwooded, from which to observe either location!<br />
<br />
(this incident also outlined at <a href="https://honey-buzzard.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">https://honey-buzzard.blogspot.com</a> )Brian Groombridgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653209203331470836noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6860726331701600040.post-53835191262422033442018-07-06T07:36:00.001-07:002019-12-05T12:35:57.128-08:00Following a Honey-buzzard, found a Goshawk<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQzivcB7p6syl6u6SwzS4t-OAr5bGCVLBeogPjwJQNRH-KqRXP432gNTz7POd7VPHHBNI3OemEkFp_V9N7WCupTEqsR1OIp_XS0glGwoenWRX1nwgIDNjBDUqfNLCgAwv5mImr0xzlv04/s1600/P6290135ed2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="807" data-original-width="1076" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQzivcB7p6syl6u6SwzS4t-OAr5bGCVLBeogPjwJQNRH-KqRXP432gNTz7POd7VPHHBNI3OemEkFp_V9N7WCupTEqsR1OIp_XS0glGwoenWRX1nwgIDNjBDUqfNLCgAwv5mImr0xzlv04/s400/P6290135ed2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Adult male Northern Goshawk, 29.vi.2018; wingtips look<br />atypical because of regrowing inner primaries.</span></b></td></tr>
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Several recent visits to my usual watchpoints here in this quiet side valley in the North Apennines have been 'no show' for the Goshawk. But the overall ratio of eight sightings in 20 prolonged site visits this year is not too bad (a couple of visits produced double sightings but are just scored once). And on a couple of visits I've heard one or two fairly subdued kek-kek-kek calls from surrounding woods without seeing the bird during the visit.<br />
<br />
But today was very unusual, unique in my experience, limited as that is. I had been trying to make more observations on a particular local female Honey-buzzard. She's been showing quite often recently and seems prone to 'butterfly' display and to rushing a kilometre or two across country to confront some errant Honey in a place she seems to think it shouldn't be.<br />
<br />
Leaving that aside, mid-morning on July 3rd she appeared over the woods along the top edge of 'white scar' (an old high landslip scar I use as a watchpoint). I was thrilled at first because she started heading quite low in my direction and I was hoping to record more details of her ventral patterning, but for no reason apparent to me, she abruptly changed direction and flew fast and direct across what I've started calling Gos Valley, just as shorthand in my notebook. Looking that way, I could make out two distant specks in the sky, one was a pale-bellied Honey-buzzard, and the other looked like it could be a Goshawk.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidLjqR-AvP7akSrQPwng6J0wIIgYfgGx0o4KmXkkI7Z2_mULogjFBkJhxs9IqRVUmN-BuiKItnVOMHBLs1GdAXK3ZaQIWr54XB8F1MNmiwS7Kz7ds3M3lL2cm2OJkHUSMJ4M9y9ZyfACk/s1600/2018-07-05_174512xrsz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="1400" height="128" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidLjqR-AvP7akSrQPwng6J0wIIgYfgGx0o4KmXkkI7Z2_mULogjFBkJhxs9IqRVUmN-BuiKItnVOMHBLs1GdAXK3ZaQIWr54XB8F1MNmiwS7Kz7ds3M3lL2cm2OJkHUSMJ4M9y9ZyfACk/s640/2018-07-05_174512xrsz.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Four images to show Honey-buzzard/Goshawk encounter. Note left-hand image showing size of Gos, to rear, relative to Honey-buzzard, not far in front. Northern Apennines, 3.vii.2018.</span></b></td></tr>
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I got the binoculars back on the female Honey and by the time she caught up with the distant birds, the pale-bellied bird had vanished so she swerved at the Goshawk and then pursued it several hundred metres until both were just thin profiles against the wooded skyline hills, and I lost them.<br />
<br />
Was that a wise thing to do? The Gos didn't seem very bothered. I'm pretty sure the hawk was 'my' adult male (he looks in an identical moult state, with a couple of inner primaries growing back to length, making the wingtip look a bit Sparrowhawk-like; see image at bottom of previous post for comparison with condition on 16 June). Perhaps a larger female would have been less inclined to let it drop.Brian Groombridgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653209203331470836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6860726331701600040.post-13569911174055875642018-06-22T07:58:00.001-07:002018-06-22T08:02:42.273-07:00Keeping in touch with the male Goshawk<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHiUEPKfCaCgK8qCiOUKBcCvC54NcbMZ7oA0Gu6Z3d0p22AhbABv_5CQRylOl6oYbpcVKlRufOn-2XIrxwgnWORLs9w4FFlMOgtgXLT-AmLez5qdlBk2TofUM7lCAOVxuP8iaa6xY1LUg/s1600/2018_3_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1200" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHiUEPKfCaCgK8qCiOUKBcCvC54NcbMZ7oA0Gu6Z3d0p22AhbABv_5CQRylOl6oYbpcVKlRufOn-2XIrxwgnWORLs9w4FFlMOgtgXLT-AmLez5qdlBk2TofUM7lCAOVxuP8iaa6xY1LUg/s400/2018_3_1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Adult male Goshawk, 3.vi.2018, N Apennines.</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Bulky body, broad hips, narrowed long hand, rounded tail end,</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #0b5394;">and bulky white undertail coverts (partly flared)</span></b></td></tr>
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After the incredible Goshawk encounter back on the 3rd June, as outlined in the previous post, it seems increasingly unlikely to have any competition as Goshawk 'highlight of the year'. I've been revisiting the half dozen best images quite often since! But If later sightings have been brief and of more distant Goshawks, I am not complaining because I did not expect to see any at all in the valley this year after the apparent (but not absolutely certain) failure of breeding after its initial stages last year and the absence of any signs of breeding at the usual nest site this spring.<br />
<br />
In my previous experience, the calls and flight behaviour associated with breeding seemed to provide the only realistic opportunity to contact Goshawk (here, either the provisioning male or the newly fledged juveniles in flight), even if such contact is irregular and unreliable. However, I have now seen what I think is the local male Goshawk several times, but I don't know if he is breeding or not.<br />
<br />
I have been back to the 'white scar' watchpoint several times since the 3rd but observation time has been severely limited by adverse weather at the start: frequent total cloud cover with rain falling or thunderstorms imminent. The past several days (writing on 22 June) have seen a return to more typical conditions with extended sunny and warm conditions (and still risk of afternoon thunderstorms).<br />
<br />
The 'white scar' is an old landslip area in the chaotically faulted and unstable limestone and shale bedrock of the valley, steep and stony, with tumbled blocks the size of a car fragmenting into flakes the size of a 5 euro coin. It is still relatively open but is reverting to woodland. High up on one of the wooded slopes bordering the Goshawk valley, it gives a good view across the valley where the nest tree is located (the site itself is not visible, hidden in the deepest part of the valley) and of the airspace above the next valley beyond.<br />
<br />
<b>An adult male around the old nest site</b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6-nwdH00mTbQYJUz8MbWKKRkBoYkkZY1thlGtNBO_-XvuUj3U7GLbI0R7om0wjWerVlVRWt8vFOj67qDJacDxne0ZGb-ANDMkbo6oKH7OfBJk6Y7QsgIdWx9N7so6avDyU2KoNq78rvQ/s1600/2018_3_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="544" data-original-width="1000" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6-nwdH00mTbQYJUz8MbWKKRkBoYkkZY1thlGtNBO_-XvuUj3U7GLbI0R7om0wjWerVlVRWt8vFOj67qDJacDxne0ZGb-ANDMkbo6oKH7OfBJk6Y7QsgIdWx9N7so6avDyU2KoNq78rvQ/s400/2018_3_2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Adult male Goshawk, 3.vi.2018.</span></b></td></tr>
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Further sightings after the 3rd began to show that there was a male Goshawk resident in the area, and it frequents both the zone in the immediate vicinity of the nest site of past seasons and the wider hill and valley landscape beyond, where the breeding male has been seen in flight in the past.<br />
<br />
About 08.40 on the 7th I just glimpsed the flash of a pale underwing against the green background of the far slopes of the nest valley, with a momentary second wing flash ahead of it. The first bird was a Goshawk: not much to see at distance other than the size and brilliance of white undertail coverts and it was soon lost as it flew up the nest valley and so behind a descending spur of the nearer hillside. Less than an hour later a Goshawk appeared over the edge of woodland encircling the upper rim of the scar area, doubtless the same bird, it circled as it moved along the wood edge, uttering one quiet k-k-k, and then went out of sight over the immediate skyline. Previously a Sparrowhawk came into view along the same wood edge and flew rapidly over the skyline: perhaps this could have made the brief wing flash that earlier drew my attention to the distant Goshawk.<br />
<br />
<b>Does food-carrying definitely mean breeding?</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
At about 09.30 on the 9th a bird suddenly came into view about 150 metres away, above the more distant downhill part of the wood along the higher edge of the scar. I don't know if it had just come up from the wood floor nearby or had arrived from the higher slopes out of direct sight. On size and wing length I immediately thought it was the Goshawk, although with more persistent wing-flapping than usual as if labouring very slightly to make height. He headed away high across the upper part of his usual nesting valley but in the poor visibility I lost sight of him against the distant background trees, so got no significant clue to the possible whereabouts of an alternative nest site.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQkUuVzqz6FWz9esHJN5Gku-MCQx7lDcZ2L0rYn9cTenuN3WR-7nSLILDxZuchw3EZwyIGe92tNVsXP5m_wHU5evOcWb5Ht9s3JQBs6D5FKzwL_ashKNvb5Ei3QKAvdrS-f7ObXAmfYKk/s1600/2018_3_4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="423" data-original-width="958" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQkUuVzqz6FWz9esHJN5Gku-MCQx7lDcZ2L0rYn9cTenuN3WR-7nSLILDxZuchw3EZwyIGe92tNVsXP5m_wHU5evOcWb5Ht9s3JQBs6D5FKzwL_ashKNvb5Ei3QKAvdrS-f7ObXAmfYKk/s400/2018_3_4.JPG" width="400" /></a>A quick look at the poor images of the distant bird (left) show it was carrying prey, probably the cause of slightly different flight action, but the apparently square-cornered tail made me wonder about the identification. Had I got the ID wrong? Well, I've since found several Gos images where the tail can look very square-cornered, especially in oblique or foreshortened views, so I'm sticking with my first impression (though to be honest that's a 'probable' identification rather than certain). The ID in this case is important because I assume that if the bird is carrying prey, he must have a nest to supply? Other possibilities are: 1) I misidentified the bird, 2) the bird was a Goshawk but a second bird, not the local male, 3) it was the local male and he was taking food for himself to some site away from his usual haunts.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4J8KIQnhAWHJoCj8ztT_66IbSLZktrjZ1VEo0WlgFla9HIRjFgN-fHvaNL4d8_GTeK35Th0t1w7giee8-ZGkK6o5CfsJol639FoREufiYY-55mTu3OaHOSgFbX-3wRqk-8pqpcmZKWAE/s1600/2018_3_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="435" data-original-width="1200" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4J8KIQnhAWHJoCj8ztT_66IbSLZktrjZ1VEo0WlgFla9HIRjFgN-fHvaNL4d8_GTeK35Th0t1w7giee8-ZGkK6o5CfsJol639FoREufiYY-55mTu3OaHOSgFbX-3wRqk-8pqpcmZKWAE/s640/2018_3_3.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">When you've got to scratch an itch: composite from a flight sequence, 10.vi.2018.</span></b></td></tr>
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At a similar time the next day, 09.20 on the 10th June, a Goshawk appeared low over the woods running along the upper edge of the scar area. With a few leisurely wing beats and a couple of soaring turns it moved fast along the wood edge toward the uppermost part of the scar, which from my position forms the skyline, then disappeared over the treetops. Before he appeared I'd heard a couple of kek-kek-kek call sequences, apparently from points within his usual base area surrounding the nest site; these were not at the typical alarm intensity but I do not know what their context was. When he first appeared, he seemed to pause and almost dive inelegantly into the wood edge, but distant images show he had an itchy 'chin' that had to be scratched (below)!<br />
<br />
<b>The male's core area? </b><br />
<br />
In the past couple of nesting seasons I have often heard evidence of Goshawk from woodland around the lower end of the scar area. I strongly suspect the recent male has tended to base himself in that area when breeding, and probably brings prey there before calling the female; this, however, is only an inference from the pattern of male and female calling when breeding - I have never seen such interaction nor found evidence of a plucking site there. This area is 150-200 metres from the recent watchpoint at the top of the scar, and the nest tree is hidden a further 150-200 metres downslope.<br />
<br />
All sightings so far in 2018 have been in the same locations that I have seen the male in flight in past seasons, not just the same general area but particular routes and particular landscape features (eg. the wood edge along the upper and lower margin of the landslip scar. That is essentially why I assume the same male individual is involved. A counter argument might be that these are sites conveniently seen from my watchpoint; although I believe it is the same male I cannot prove it.<br />
<br />
I saw him again on June 16th and 17th, but not (so far) after the latter date. There was also a gap in sightings between the 10th and 16th. On most days when I've seen him in flight I have also heard a subdued call or two, but I did hear a quiet k-k-k call immediately followed by a quiet wee-oo on a day that I never saw him. I strongly suspect that he tends to shift his centre of activity and may well be a few kilometres away on most days when I've neither heard nor seen him.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTVHJYu74IYGIJy4W0QgO2azEHbQRLAXhhD9EA9Y6I-NMfC87MOHmc0hNZeez1T8GJ-tVzgxGmDZES8eWz04T2Vtf3WQyk9bJ6JqUCWyDWEclK9iMpYn1ol4luS7WfxLP44nMRBlD-Qu8/s1600/2018_3_5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="553" data-original-width="1000" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTVHJYu74IYGIJy4W0QgO2azEHbQRLAXhhD9EA9Y6I-NMfC87MOHmc0hNZeez1T8GJ-tVzgxGmDZES8eWz04T2Vtf3WQyk9bJ6JqUCWyDWEclK9iMpYn1ol4luS7WfxLP44nMRBlD-Qu8/s400/2018_3_5.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Moult starting. L: 10th June, R: 16th June, 2018.</span></b></td></tr>
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The latest images (16th June ) I have show the bird is now actively moulting the inner primaries of the left wing. The composite (right) shows an image from this date with one from about a week earlier (10th); the arrows indicate the broken-off tip of primary 8 on the right wing, just to confirm these show the same bird.<br />
<br />
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<br />Brian Groombridgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653209203331470836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6860726331701600040.post-50309970515981826322018-06-04T05:14:00.000-07:002018-06-04T05:17:50.443-07:00It's just a bird, why the ecstasy?<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvChv-FR83vSSbdy8POmR6CYvnNtPx37hUQdg-C_0STdfzS_ncaoaXZrr8_ZbIE6HoRrzEH97fxJompudBZsnlmlQE4s3hYuBks1bU8A5YnfgmqacsYPq9PjfIwUgvhSVYSLfmNRFM-xo/s1600/2018_2pic1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="899" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvChv-FR83vSSbdy8POmR6CYvnNtPx37hUQdg-C_0STdfzS_ncaoaXZrr8_ZbIE6HoRrzEH97fxJompudBZsnlmlQE4s3hYuBks1bU8A5YnfgmqacsYPq9PjfIwUgvhSVYSLfmNRFM-xo/s400/2018_2pic1.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Adult male Goshawk, N Apennines, 3.vi.18.</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Long wings, distinct and narrow hand, </span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #0b5394;">faint primary barring, shortish tail</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #0b5394;">with well-rounded end.</span></b></td></tr>
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As rather forlornly recounted in the previous post, during a short visit to the valley in the northern Apennines in mid-March this year I found no evidence of the presence of Goshawks around their usual nest site. I arrived for a longer stay on 23 May. Until yesterday (3 June) there had been no new evidence and I was trying to get accustomed to the absence of a nesting pair and apparently of any Goshawks at all.<br />
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Yesterday - a blissful day - I got really impossibly lucky. I was in the right place at the right time for a close encounter with an adult male Goshawk. On my way up to the high landslip scar watchpoint, past the nesting woods, I heard a short call that had a certain Goshawk flavour but which I dismissed as perhaps a Jay mimic or conceivably a Sparrowhawk or even a misheard alarming blackbird. I didn't dare hope there was a Gos in the area! About mid-morning, after just a couple of hours scanning the sky and ridgelines, I looked up from putting something away in my pack and there was a large hawk climbing straight towards me from the woods below and already close. Big. Beautiful close-barred grey breast. Glaring white undertail coverts like jet trails. Moving fast with little effort. Surely a Goshawk? The bird circled over my position, apparently without seeing me directly below, then circled close around the open rocks of the upper scar area, then over the woods along the higher edge, and, quite distant now, after several more soaring circles it vanished behind trees and rocks at my back.<br />
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A stunning and ecstatic encounter, perhaps even more dramatic than the meeting related in the post on 27 April last year. For sure an adult male Goshawk, and possibly the very male that has nested here in recent seasons. About half an hour later a Goshawk floated low and close overhead from somewhere behind me, crossed the top of the open landslip area, and after a couple of slow deep wingbeats glided toward the trees that run along the highest edge of the scar. Closer rocks and trees again hid my view of exactly where it went but I was waiting patiently for a possible further flight view when I half turned to my left and saw a Goshawk sitting on a high bare branch! The movement I made to raise my binoculars must have alarmed him because when I looked through them toward the branch he was gone.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9lS4E2Tvw1q6wh-g2EaEJzLsvsDb0NrSlin7Q31IinmErSP2v9mOft0B1ma6BFLCh4ol09mXqJCl61lut9XznKYComWeZyGlCANGuWGIUKuY0CL69_9CuU_3TuQzm-BKjsWURSfV0HTw/s1600/2018_2pic2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1000" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9lS4E2Tvw1q6wh-g2EaEJzLsvsDb0NrSlin7Q31IinmErSP2v9mOft0B1ma6BFLCh4ol09mXqJCl61lut9XznKYComWeZyGlCANGuWGIUKuY0CL69_9CuU_3TuQzm-BKjsWURSfV0HTw/s400/2018_2pic2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Adult male Goshawk, N Apennines, 3.vi.18</span></b></td></tr>
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Slowly coming down from the high of the morning events, it took me a while to start wondering if my first assumption - that the male is not breeding this season but simply resident in his usual territory - was correct. This assumption is based largely on the complete absence of any of the usual calling between nesting adults, associated with food provisioning or nest security. I've heard no such vocalisations from the specific nest woods or from anywhere else in the valley within earshot. His seemingly 'relaxed' demeanour yesterday, lacking the urgency that often characterises flights during nest-provisioning (and I have never seen a Gos perched high in an exposed treetop before), was consistent with this assumption. But the startling semi-flared white undertail coverts made me wonder if he has an alternative nest location somewhere in the valley. For some reason, and I'm not at all sure if this is well-founded, I had the notion that the male only showed prominent coverts when breeding. Today, his were not flared out to the maximum extent but were not tucked away either. Perhaps more clues will emerge if I'm lucky enough to have further close contact.Brian Groombridgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653209203331470836noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6860726331701600040.post-49689107726481563212018-03-25T13:42:00.002-07:002018-03-25T15:04:59.243-07:00Mid-March 2018: no sign of Goshawk at nest valley<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgwIS8fwx2_1iTrIMMIJUKkzbv80CvUzbw3dfZbcnC0Dv0WVnTHYA_1J_S16RxnZ_ZR9R-ScL7lvxSHfP-xA7H9RaTkCDNoGk2WZJ8M9bnWLgUIo6i_MtAJYO6fugZZzNYIUTuSiu5jJA/s1600/gos2018.1_1rsz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1200" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgwIS8fwx2_1iTrIMMIJUKkzbv80CvUzbw3dfZbcnC0Dv0WVnTHYA_1J_S16RxnZ_ZR9R-ScL7lvxSHfP-xA7H9RaTkCDNoGk2WZJ8M9bnWLgUIo6i_MtAJYO6fugZZzNYIUTuSiu5jJA/s640/gos2018.1_1rsz.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">The Goshawk nest site in sloping Beech-Aspen woodland, northern Apennines, Piacenza Province, 16.iii.2018. The nest is prominent against the sky just right of centre (and see image below).</span></b></td></tr>
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Made a short visit to my usual site in the north Apennine hills between 15 and 19 March, partly to check on the house plumbing after the winter and a recent period of intense cold (temperatures down to minus 15 deg C for several days), and partly to check for signs of Goshawk activity around their traditional nest, or perhaps elsewhere in the valley. All good for the former, but sadly no evidence of Goshawk presence at all. No sightings, no calls, nothing encouraging. Ah, well, that's not quite correct: the woods in which the nest is situated have not been cut, the nest and the nest tree are still in position, and not further exposed by nearby tree fall. So that much is positive - just no signs of Goshawk!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuJ6UtK1L9E8DqX5zhb4VAALaMx0ErNXPlUWMVsbufvBkPrkxAArT66ej5Lk05jrG80-NeWmZJSjKZRhtNX8WC6ELBd84ECUmC6R14ZysURJqxiExnf5DbkrnQTvcd-5DUg2Spc0JB-E4/s1600/gos2018.1_2rsz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="900" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuJ6UtK1L9E8DqX5zhb4VAALaMx0ErNXPlUWMVsbufvBkPrkxAArT66ej5Lk05jrG80-NeWmZJSjKZRhtNX8WC6ELBd84ECUmC6R14ZysURJqxiExnf5DbkrnQTvcd-5DUg2Spc0JB-E4/s320/gos2018.1_2rsz.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">The Goshawk nest structure, 16.iii.2018,<br />high in an Aspen <i>Populus tremula</i>.</span></b></td></tr>
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I'm pretty sure that if an active potential breeding pair was present in this small valley I would at least have heard some early morning calling. Silence was in complete contrast to the noisy and exciting early interchanges between the pair last year (see post on 4 April 2017, "Mist, mud, and Goshawks nesting again!"). But bearing in mind that the early promise of last year turned again to silence in early summer, strongly suggesting failure of the breeding attempt (see post of 23 June 2017, "Despondent as breeding fails"), I was already half expecting no pair to be in residence this year.<br />
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Trying very hard to be positive, I guess it's possible that resident hawks dispersed during the recent hard weather and have not yet returned. Perhaps if one half of last year's pair is in the area he or she will find another mate; perhaps they or another pair will settle at the nest; perhaps I'll manage to locate another nest site within the wider valley system. That's three "perhaps" in one sentence. We'll see.<br />
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Brian Groombridgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653209203331470836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6860726331701600040.post-4155622658141783832017-08-16T07:13:00.001-07:002017-08-31T06:54:49.904-07:00A more substantial Goshawk<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLXpRBHLYP6gFTpL6Q3VbedyKm4tD5w1dssd2Wv5KqhBenpZt-0G5Wc3Wudo3ZKjHwdXaWBGC5De9KYXxL2nm4w-jqnCeYveoo4kksjnFdiNlbmQRX9G31syV7JdZTeeQqmfxeQa_s_lQ/s1600/post28.1_cr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="690" data-original-width="488" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLXpRBHLYP6gFTpL6Q3VbedyKm4tD5w1dssd2Wv5KqhBenpZt-0G5Wc3Wudo3ZKjHwdXaWBGC5De9KYXxL2nm4w-jqnCeYveoo4kksjnFdiNlbmQRX9G31syV7JdZTeeQqmfxeQa_s_lQ/s400/post28.1_cr.jpg" width="282" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Surprise juvenile Goshawk, 14.viii.17</span></b></td></tr>
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I wouldn't quite say that the last two posts have been "scraping the barrel" of Goshawk sightings, but yes, they betray a certain desperation now that contact with a Goshawk has become so very very scarce. <br />
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Something more substantial a couple of days ago (14 Aug.) when a definite Goshawk was suddenly there, about 100 metres away and at modest height over the steep track ahead. The bird soared a couple of turns, crossing the track, moved over the woods on the uphill side, then disappeared fast over the treetops, apparently heading along the ridge.<br />
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The confusing thing is that the bird had juvenile plumage. It was in the heart of the local pair's territory and, like the bird mentioned in the previous post, was taking a course that I've previously seen the adult male follow; last year's juveniles also. So how to explain its presence here if the pair's breeding attempt at the nest just a few hundred metres up the valley had failed, as I thought (post #25, on 23 June)?<br />
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(1) The very simplest explanation is that I was wrong to conclude the pair had failed, and they had in fact produced at least one offspring. But I find that hard to accept for several reasons: the decline and then cessation over late May and early June of all the usual calling between male and female associated with food delivery; the decline and then cessation of visible flights by the male, presumed to be food deliveries; the lack of any typical juvenile food begging calls; the lack of first flight events by juveniles; and the lack of any signs of a juvenile's presence in the area when I visited the nest site after accepting that breeding had failed. The only evidence in favour is that I had thought a few weak 'weeoo' calls back in early June sounded a little like juvenile calls and not robust like the typical adult female versions. Perhaps only a single chick survived to fledge and it takes at least two to generate all the usual excited shrieking over food and their first flights above the canopy? But having fledgling food calls in early June and fully independent flying now would have required eggs to have been laid by late March, almost three weeks earlier than I calculate is the usual date.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Uij3G_pHXE-NKWRNq7i_-sFq9vTknel5Ze7tcSr40XFMenM-byj0byw4XifD3IMbhPZH951c41fqTn5RFo0KNsoTPBObV8vqjjDxKUdzMI8kucQN2m8WlXC60v691vs9poDBO7xze9M/s1600/post28.2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="701" data-original-width="576" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Uij3G_pHXE-NKWRNq7i_-sFq9vTknel5Ze7tcSr40XFMenM-byj0byw4XifD3IMbhPZH951c41fqTn5RFo0KNsoTPBObV8vqjjDxKUdzMI8kucQN2m8WlXC60v691vs9poDBO7xze9M/s400/post28.2.jpg" width="327" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">The juvenile Goshawk, colour and pattern are<br />diagnostic (in Europe); note prominent beak.<br />N Apennines, 14.viii.2017</span></b></td></tr>
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(2) The next possible explanation is that it is a juvenile from another pair's nest somewhere in the area, perhaps several kilometres distant. But assuming that at least one of the local pair is still in the area, one might expect a strange juvenile to be challenged and excluded. Perhaps territoriality is at its lowest ebb in August or might both adults have moved away? <br />
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(3) A third and more elaborate possibility is that this bird is a 2nd calendar year bird still in its first plumage. Perhaps it is one of last year's brood, perhaps it was even one half of the pair whose breeding attempt failed, possibly because of inexperience. But while the images are not adequate to show accurate rendition of fine detail they do not show obvious feather wear or fading, which is consistent with this bird being a fresh juvenile rather than a 2cy.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhukDmmqTfyuX1us-o0ZdB2s9FnyXVpQit1YY-7LJO4Snx3lc7_r1hvktWqhsM8ijaBY_dR3xLErg7WuPJEOQzxypuTM_JOg6vh625Ci-KUMKfhQ1jXuQPYeXuiSSndAylCPfaRchpWZqQ/s1600/post28.3tag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1313" data-original-width="1600" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhukDmmqTfyuX1us-o0ZdB2s9FnyXVpQit1YY-7LJO4Snx3lc7_r1hvktWqhsM8ijaBY_dR3xLErg7WuPJEOQzxypuTM_JOg6vh625Ci-KUMKfhQ1jXuQPYeXuiSSndAylCPfaRchpWZqQ/s320/post28.3tag.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Goshawk from 7 Aug. now seen to be<br />juvenile (note buff body colour<br />and darker blotches).</span></b></td></tr>
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<b>PS</b>: I have looked again at the very poor images from the Gos sighting on 7 August (see previous post). I did wonder briefly about the slightly buff body colour but thought it was just some artefactual blurring of an adult's fine barring. I should have looked more closely; I now see some dark spots or streaks, so that bird was a juvenile Goshawk. In fact there's every chance it was the same individual seen on the 14th! Its presence in the valley perhaps gives some credence to the idea that the pair did produce a juvenile? That would be great but I still find it hard to believe!Brian Groombridgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653209203331470836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6860726331701600040.post-33779570824781297022017-08-11T09:50:00.000-07:002017-08-12T10:18:23.615-07:00Looking in the right direction for once<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnYYNgVphJKndWCh_oLdqPBxysziSLrLXlNuO856XRr5evNdsY6xJlbJlx2nQA9l45u8a6kBS6ySDaZ9WQjJgsX9yaD7PmW0XXcQmaIcP1mROKg83ASxopMt_ocQT7-cI9XjVIaMb0RK4/s1600/gos2017.27.1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="234" data-original-width="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnYYNgVphJKndWCh_oLdqPBxysziSLrLXlNuO856XRr5evNdsY6xJlbJlx2nQA9l45u8a6kBS6ySDaZ9WQjJgsX9yaD7PmW0XXcQmaIcP1mROKg83ASxopMt_ocQT7-cI9XjVIaMb0RK4/s1600/gos2017.27.1.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Goshawk, probably the local male. <br />Distant, but note long wings, depth of beak, <br />deep belly, undertail coverts not visible. <br />7.viii.2017</span></b></td></tr>
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As the last post demonstrated, I was not quite correct when I thought, pessimistically, that after the failure of their breeding attempt back in June the likelihood of seeing a Goshawk in flight during the rest of the summer was about the same as "a snowball's chance in hell". But that single distant glimpse while waiting for Honey-buzzards to appear, recorded in the last post, does not amount to much considering the amount of time spent in the field. Now the recent record has improved by a massive 100%: in other words, I've had one more Goshawk sighting, making two in all after the breeding failure. This one lasted perhaps three or four seconds and the bird was a bit closer than before, around 100 metres at first and over 200 when it disappeared. <br />
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It was 10.30 on a hot morning (7 August), I'd just been straining eyes and neck trying (without success) to locate the Honey-buzzard that had just called, apparently from very high behind me, and turned back around to see a raptor not very high over the steep meadow in front. It was positioned as if it had just emerged from the woods at the far side of the meadow. With a few deep flexible wingbeats it was up the slope and disappearing behind the treetops on the ridge crest ahead. Unusually both my camera and I were quick enough to record a few images of the distant bird.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwVeH5blaay5XCigEIu9yHF9HOPFMVmb61X-8fzAiFWrA9fACnKuW0SN2uh7QR351DgRjO5pMXcujzddJy0qPeRvkvpLc41nM1ksWol2lkX7JBvqSr_p6IrLY3BvdFcVW-MiAvL6fRhYE/s1600/2017-08-11_125041rsz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="609" data-original-width="1300" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwVeH5blaay5XCigEIu9yHF9HOPFMVmb61X-8fzAiFWrA9fACnKuW0SN2uh7QR351DgRjO5pMXcujzddJy0qPeRvkvpLc41nM1ksWol2lkX7JBvqSr_p6IrLY3BvdFcVW-MiAvL6fRhYE/s640/2017-08-11_125041rsz.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Note long-winged appearance. The bird is not soaring in the right-hand image, <br />these are from a sequence of shots while the hawk was in active <br />flight away over the ridge crest. </span></b></td></tr>
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<b>So why was it a Goshawk?</b><br />
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A couple of features stood out when looking at the bird: the long-winged appearance relative to Sparrowhawk, and the distinctly slower pace of wingbeats compared with Sparrowhawk (but comparable, possibly greater, flight speed). It did not give the impression of rather stiff wings that Sparrowhawks often show in active flight. It was also clearly larger than a Sparrowhawk would have been, assessed in relation to familiar trees and bushes at this site, but I'd suspect it was the local male rather than a larger female. One of the images shows well the rather deep body and prominent beak, also the barring apparently restricted to the outer primaries. The absence of visible white undertail coverts is notable; these seem to be more or less permanently flared out in the actively breeding male. A couple of white patches are just visible dorsally at the root of the tail.<br />
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Another reason I'm happy to call this a Goshawk, although not an identification feature in itself, is that I have often seen the male from the local site (only a few hundred metres from the meadow) take a very similar course when leaving the nest area on a new foraging trip. Typically he will leave fast at treetop height down the valley centre then turn to his left (sometimes right) and move directly up the slope before flying along the ridge crest toward higher woods.<br />
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<b>Surprise encounter</b><br />
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However, the recent record probably stands at three encounters. Back on 21 July, about 9am, I was labouring up the ridge track toward the local mountain and had reached a particularly attractive section where the wooded slopes fall away steeply on one side and rise steeply on the other, and the trees overhang the stony trackway to form a high tunnel-like corridor. I'm pretty sure the Goshawk favour this area for hunting; one evening a couple of years back I saw (from the back) what must have been a Goshawk perched on a bough overlooking the path, and I've several times heard kek-kek calls in the area. This section is just a couple of hundred metres further up the ridge from where the bird this morning was headed. This morning the first conscious information I had that a bird was approaching was when there was a sudden flash of pale whitish underwings about 25 metres ahead, low to the ground and just on the cusp of a bend. The flash came as a hawk, having seen me in his path before I saw him, braked and turned an instant right angle and shot away between tree trunks into the shadows up the rising slope to my right. No specific identification marks registered, but it was a hawk and I judged significantly larger than any Sparrowhawk: "probably" a Goshawk. <br />
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Curiously, I once had a very similar experience walking along a hedged drove at home in Cambridgeshire when a male Sparrowhawk appeared and did a cartoon-like crash stop almost in my face, barred tail and pale striped wings all outspread, before streaking away through the hedge.Brian Groombridgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653209203331470836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6860726331701600040.post-11795284284315682152017-07-04T09:35:00.000-07:002017-07-04T09:35:03.824-07:00Tiny and far away, but it is a Goshawk!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9AxCv9-eBrZ2eNnv2q3X1oXBWhI_ZppdK3SOSm9UUNBWPUJxvO0CGjPTxFyA3E5I0wV-eG4Vv66Sc2dxpnzU7QA5WYfFWaN1TwoGGjVmMwXdcYdQvV-zBD0BoMiU2c543oQXc8DQrUZ4/s1600/2017-5.1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="713" data-original-width="1600" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9AxCv9-eBrZ2eNnv2q3X1oXBWhI_ZppdK3SOSm9UUNBWPUJxvO0CGjPTxFyA3E5I0wV-eG4Vv66Sc2dxpnzU7QA5WYfFWaN1TwoGGjVmMwXdcYdQvV-zBD0BoMiU2c543oQXc8DQrUZ4/s640/2017-5.1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Distant and out of focus but it's the male Goshawk out foraging, 2.vii.2017.</span></b></td></tr>
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At my usual watchpoint again (2nd July), up at the top of the high landslip scar where the elevation and lack of woodland cover allow relatively good views across a wide sector of the side valley where the Goshawk nest is located, and, turning the corner made by a buttress of shattered rock, part of the southern slopes of the main valley.<br />
<br />
Now that this year's breeding attempt by the local Goshawks has failed (see previous post), the woods feel impoverished, as if an entire dimension of the experience of being out in the Apennine hills has vanished. It has been a shock to realise quite how much I'd come to count on their wild cries around the side valley, and the occasional sight of the male rushing away over the woods on another hunt. I guessed they would still be around their territory, but pretty much impossible to see, with no calls and no nest to focus their activity. Happily, in compensation the Honey-buzzards have begun to show a little more often, and around mid-morning I'd been fortunate to catch a short encounter between three of the local birds high over 'my' side valley. Although they were inconveniently high, I managed to get images of each that were just about adequate to see which of the local birds they were.<br />
<br />
Then I turned the corner of the rock exposure in order to scan the main valley airspace for more Honey activity, feeling unreasonably greedy to expect more sightings. Not long after, I was electrified by a distant but unmistakeable 'kek-kek-kek' call from somewhere in the side valley, out of sight to my left and lower down. Goshawk!! I rushed back around the rock corner just in time to see a grey-brown streak burst out of the patch of woods down beyond the bottom of the landslip scar and 100 metres or so upstream of the nest site, rocket low down the valley between the treetops, and disappear behind a hill spur below. Got to be the male Goshawk, that patch of woods is where he used to call from to initiate a food delivery. <br />
<br />
Today's call was quite strident, with an edge of excitement to it, unlike the often quite gentle and discreet k-k-k call preceding a food delivery. I recall the same tone of call being heard earlier in the season, apparently when he just takes off after the area has been quiet for some time. Today I also remembered a couple of sightings in past years: while standing in the meadows below the woods I'd seen him come fast down the side valley, turn across and over the bottom of the woods to his right, then making a wide hairpin turn, power away uphill again, back toward the crest of the southern slopes and theoretically within sight of where I'd just been looking for Honey-buzzards. Well, nothing to lose by rushing back around the rock to look down the main valley, just in case - and there he was, distant already, in active flight toward the ridge crest as if heading for the woods on the far side!! No physical identification features, but his behaviour means I'm sure it was the male Goshawk. So what? Well, just that it is not impossible to see him post-nesting!Brian Groombridgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653209203331470836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6860726331701600040.post-37139785026167010592017-06-23T13:26:00.000-07:002017-06-24T08:20:19.303-07:00Despondent as breeding fails<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It's taken a while for the penny to drop but I've finally realised that the somewhat atypical behaviour of this pair that I noticed in June was indicative of real problems at the nest, and I'm now sure as I can be that this year's breeding attempt has failed. "Devastated" is perhaps a little too strong, but in fact it describes very well my feelings when I realised the silence around the nest site is the new normal for this summer. My wife tells me to shut up and just be grateful for contact up to now. It's a valid point of view, and one I'll strive to adopt wholeheartedly. It's true, I've been able to listen to their calls, occasionally see the male in flight, and in previous summers experience the joy of those glorious few days when the wild shrieking young first fly above the woods in their valley. But I was counting on doing it all again this summer ("don't count your chickens..."), and I've probably got a snowball's chance in hell of catching sight of either adult out of the woods until late in the year.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkGkSCG4eI_-jQofEGrcTVQN55-JTJaRGGQ73_yJyagnbfCEljEd5fzCTiQOlqOoAcPVfdnrBZX-SKeeS2n5tL0VbdnaYGnLkGHFls_HZK5Vukrj6e5A2pTClFu8FR51rggJ9LtKSVBp4/s1600/2017-4-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="747" data-original-width="1200" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkGkSCG4eI_-jQofEGrcTVQN55-JTJaRGGQ73_yJyagnbfCEljEd5fzCTiQOlqOoAcPVfdnrBZX-SKeeS2n5tL0VbdnaYGnLkGHFls_HZK5Vukrj6e5A2pTClFu8FR51rggJ9LtKSVBp4/s400/2017-4-2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Not this year: one of last year's juveniles in first week<br /> of flying above the woods, 29.vii.2016</span></b></td></tr>
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Still, these things happen. The pair using this nest have added juveniles to the Goshawk population of the Apennines for at least the last three seasons, and that's the really important fact. I fervently hope these or other adult Goshawks will get things together next winter.<br />
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<b>Adult vocalisations around food delivery decline to silence</b><br />
<br />
The last post (4 June) mentioned the many many hours of observation I had put in for little return. Few spells of calling as anticipated around food delivery, and even fewer sightings of the provisioning male leaving the nest valley. On several days I'd be in the area for five or six hours with no evidence for nest provisioning at all. Not unheard of normally, but not day after day, and not at a time when advanced chicks might be expected in a successful nest. I originally put this down to the pair simply being naturally quiet, perhaps with a different male showing different flight habits. <br />
<br />
In fact the events (of 3 June) outlined in that last post turn out to have been the last calling sequence that seemed largely as expected: since then I have rarely glimpsed the male, there have been no 'normal' exchanges of k-k-k and wee-oo calling by male and female of the pair, and in the last few days (writing this paragraph on 15th June) almost all vocalisations have ceased, apart from some occasional quiet k-k-k calls, mainly from a part of the woods 100 metres or so uphill from the nest tree. This is normally a patch from where the male first calls when bringing food, but between 10-15 June when I've heard some k-k-k calls from there, there has been little or nothing in response from around the nest tree.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsZ_czeUKP9yBg7ysSGxn4RQfv4SC0BZw8myqrxYaQ6p4nboWPEHXah3_ypd39vscFwKRjVPFI2rXIcgcNtmwvJkD6A2E2tY9ebjLknNRCapxcQAw4IH9ZLF3lE9zBahv2Z0BlohE4Y8U/s1600/2017-4-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="967" data-original-width="725" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsZ_czeUKP9yBg7ysSGxn4RQfv4SC0BZw8myqrxYaQ6p4nboWPEHXah3_ypd39vscFwKRjVPFI2rXIcgcNtmwvJkD6A2E2tY9ebjLknNRCapxcQAw4IH9ZLF3lE9zBahv2Z0BlohE4Y8U/s640/2017-4-1.jpg" width="476" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">It was all going so well. The male back on 21 April 2017</span></b></td></tr>
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The last robust and excited female wee-oo call I have heard was on 5th June. On a couple of days after that date I thought I heard an occasional thin and weak version of this general wee-oo call, which sounded a little like the early food-begging calls given by advanced fledglings; not only were the calls not typical of the adult female but on occasion they seemed to come from locations around the nest site, not the site itself, as if from branched and active young. But I cannot believe that this pair could have been so far ahead of the typical schedule here (advanced fledglings calling by late June, flying free by late July) without me hearing definite evidence before now. <br />
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<b>Significance of the female "wee-oo" call</b><br />
<br />
I use "k-k-k" and "wee-oo", or similar, as a kind of shorthand. Penteriani (2001), and Schnell (1958) more thoroughly describe the range of calls, their occurrence over the year, and presumed function. The female "wee-oo" call is particularly significant as an indicator of events at the nest. Schnell (1958), followed by Penteriani (2001) recognise variants of this call type: 'recognition scream' (when she sees the male return to the vicinity), 'transfer scream' (around transfer of prey, possibly to encourage transfer), and 'dismissal scream' (encouraging the male to leave the nest, presumably to continue hunting). <br />
<br />
Sometimes I can fit what I hear with this classification but I have no visual contact with the birds so can only infer a very coarse picture of what may be happening. Typically a more or less agitated exchange of calls, with the birds apparently coming into proximity from initial more separated positions, the female uttering a few wee-oo calls, sometimes loud and excited, after which the male can sometimes be seen as he leaves the nest site.<br />
<br />
The decline in frequency of this female call type during June, and its apparent absence since the 11th, the last definite record in my notebook, made me seriously concerned about the status of this season's breeding attempt. Did absence of female calls associated with prey delivery by the male mean absence of the female, or absence of prey deliveries, or both? <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ79vu8YtOBMgfS40zDS75U_JOn1aoDbHDj0Zhax9RO_eUTspMUu0gqHbOhUoxPenetbIwAgsK15QqWEErxM6zfEX0jazEhiJO53L0Qb0C5f0W3jQD5HPadsjyaZrchtGcZCy6oxJzUcI/s1600/2017-4-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="409" data-original-width="397" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ79vu8YtOBMgfS40zDS75U_JOn1aoDbHDj0Zhax9RO_eUTspMUu0gqHbOhUoxPenetbIwAgsK15QqWEErxM6zfEX0jazEhiJO53L0Qb0C5f0W3jQD5HPadsjyaZrchtGcZCy6oxJzUcI/s320/2017-4-3.jpg" width="310" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Male leaving after food delivery, arrow <br />marks full crop, 7.vii.2017</span></b></td></tr>
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The last date for which I have direct evidence for prey being brought to the nest area is 7th June, when the male's bulging crop could be seen as he left the area after a late morning delivery; this was preceeded by the usual quiet k-k-k call from his spot uphill from the nest. Of course I do not know if any part of that prey item was taken by the female, who gave only a few weak wee-oo calls. Despite the extreme dryness of the year so far, which I began to speculate might have affected hunting success in some way, there is still an abundance of blackbirds and jays which are high on the list of known prey species.<br />
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<b>Nest apparently deserted</b><br />
<br />
So on 15 June I decided to take a gamble on perhaps disturbing them by going further uphill on the track through the woods to where it curves around the top of the large concave slope in which the nest tree is located; there is a spot on that track (reconnoitred in winter) where, with a lucky breeze to move intervening foliage, it is sometimes possible to get a partial view of the nest (100 or 120 metres away downslope but not much above eye level) and check if there is an adult or chick near fledgling size visible or not. There was not, nor were there alarm calls from any hawk that might have been on watch nearby, even though I stayed for some time (and would no doubt have been seen by any adult hawk in the vicinity) trying to sort out whether different patches of light were just light reflecting from leaves or perhaps a downy chick. I could not exclude the possibility that a young bird might have been laying flat in the nest bowl, but thought it unlikely. Despite everything apparently going well in May the nest now appeared deserted. I returned over the next couple of days, just in case an adult had temporarily left the nest area when I viewed it on the 15th, but I neither heard nor saw any sign of occupation and concluded reluctantly that this year's breeding had failed. <br />
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It is not clear to me why the breeding attempt should have failed at this point. The last time I'm aware of it happening was in mid-June 2013 after a sequence of days with torrential rain followed by a massive and damaging hailstorm. Is there some kind of milestone around the middle of June, perhaps to do with chicks attaining some critical size and vigour, that has to be passed for the brood to progress and fledge successfully?<br />
<br />
I'm not aware of any disturbance around the nest site beyond the very occasional trail bike rider in the vicinity. There has been no timber extraction in the vicinity over the breeding season. Typically there will be a few people in the area looking for truffles and other fungi after periods of rain, but there has been virtually no rain. Perhaps the most likely explanation is that either the male has not been able to keep up an adequate food supply to the nest (perhaps also connected with the extreme dryness), or one of the pair has met with an accident while away from the nest, or been overtaken by disease or old age. Perhaps the female was an inexperienced 2cy bird*. <br />
<br />
Penteriani, V. 2001. The annual and diel cycles of Goshawk vocalizations at nest sites. <i>J. Raptor Res</i>. 35(1):24-30.<br />
Schnell, J.H. 1958. Nesting behavior and food habits of goshawks in the Sierra Nevada of California. <i>Condor</i> 60:377-403. Available online (accessed 16.vi.2017): https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/condor/v060n06/p0377-p0403.pdf<br />
*The feathers later recovered at the foot of the nest tree, see Postscript, suggest the female was an adult, at least 3cy. This is based on the faded bars on the secondary (thanks to P.Sunesen), see BirdForum post <a href="http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?p=3582918&posted=1#post3582918" target="_blank">HERE</a>.<br />
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<b>Postscript added 21 June 2017. </b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhODl9VdBWuSf4N27ZemlKBFQvm4S15sGQ3ccYVlVdqkLWIwroVGEtbcusCxaCJmG5satcdxn4juN0MDFiIMvsWxexmErN8yeCgHh2hFQzYHp7tB8tsD5BWy1Lld2DiyXzwSez-opi3Ty8/s1600/2017-4-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhODl9VdBWuSf4N27ZemlKBFQvm4S15sGQ3ccYVlVdqkLWIwroVGEtbcusCxaCJmG5satcdxn4juN0MDFiIMvsWxexmErN8yeCgHh2hFQzYHp7tB8tsD5BWy1Lld2DiyXzwSez-opi3Ty8/s400/2017-4-4.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">The nest (circled): an adjacent Aspen has leaned over<br />and both have several dead upper branches,<br />the nest is much more exposed than before.</span></b></td></tr>
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With a complete lack of calls around the site and no birds seen in flight, on the 18th I cautiously visited the nest tree itself. No sign of any young at the nest or nearby, no sign of any adult in attendance. Twigs with leaves had clearly been added around the rim some time ago but no fresh twigs with green leaves were visible; this need not be significant. Nothing untoward was seen around the nest tree. I picked up three feathers, presumably moulted by the female, and I believe this can be taken as confirmation that she had been incubating and sitting with young. The moulted feathers appear to be an outer secondary or inner primary from the right wing and two outer tail feathers from the left side. The nest tree (an Aspen <i>Populus tremula</i>) appears to have deteriorated this year. Several of the lesser branches around and above the fork supporting the nest look dead, and the leaf canopy over the nest looks less complete than in past seasons. The year has been exceptionally dry so far and I'm wondering if this might have had some impact on tree health, and could the loss of some leaf cover have had a seriously adverse impact on conditions in the nest? Still no sign of Goshawk presence in the immediate vicinity of the nest tree on 19th and 20th.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTSAsD13Nuncj2TsZ1E4zvLql-1942JqLCxbfZA0ClYpKGLWWqA7WKINpFdmu8jGiW76Zkve5HPH2bkwDj7PvMGClBPBoGHIdc7chPMeW8p-g-_Qvb_ycVNhvJdDvij1H7QLmsj9Ve9ZA/s1600/4-5BF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="902" data-original-width="1200" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTSAsD13Nuncj2TsZ1E4zvLql-1942JqLCxbfZA0ClYpKGLWWqA7WKINpFdmu8jGiW76Zkve5HPH2bkwDj7PvMGClBPBoGHIdc7chPMeW8p-g-_Qvb_ycVNhvJdDvij1H7QLmsj9Ve9ZA/s400/4-5BF.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>Secondary and tail feathers found under nest<br />Upper surface, left. 18.vi.2017</b></span></td></tr>
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<br />Brian Groombridgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653209203331470836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6860726331701600040.post-14787567963403306582017-06-04T12:27:00.000-07:002017-06-04T12:27:50.663-07:00The male shows well at last<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeGhd53WY-T009RFaxyabbofsdlgAXNyYIRwBU9DW64hvt889ZhAn0AIjJg6Qq4494IAsKJj22zC3IoN29AH4AnGOmXufQQYSbElkcXtctrE2RpQZRJk-Oyie7vBn3mw69DMtBMmaQGgQ/s1600/3.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1011" data-original-width="1010" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeGhd53WY-T009RFaxyabbofsdlgAXNyYIRwBU9DW64hvt889ZhAn0AIjJg6Qq4494IAsKJj22zC3IoN29AH4AnGOmXufQQYSbElkcXtctrE2RpQZRJk-Oyie7vBn3mw69DMtBMmaQGgQ/s400/3.3.jpg" width="398" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">The male Goshawk, heading away from the<br /> nest site, presumably on a mission for more prey.<br />N Apennines, 21.iv.2017.</span></b></span></td></tr>
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Unfortunately, it seems that the local Goshawk pair have not bothered to read the script I'd carefully prepared for them over the winter. Sightings of the provisioning male, and sounds by both adults around the nest area, have been very infrequent instead of almost frequent and dependable. It has been a salutary reminder that, here at least, the Goshawk is a secretive and strictly woodland species that lives primarily among the trees.<br />
<br />
Based on past seasons (especially 2016) I had been anticipating lots of calling as the female receives food or prevents the male approaching the nest too closely (this picture of the context of calls is derived from literature, not from personal observations, because I do not observe the nest itself, only the airspace above the site, which is in a deeper part of the valley and invisible from the rock exposure I use as a watchpoint). I had also been expecting the male to be in visible flight more frequently at this time as the food needs of growing young increase.<br />
<br />
Wrong on both counts, although events took a turn for the better yesterday (3 June). I have been back in the Apennine valley since 23 May, around a week later than usual, and on each of the past twelve days I have spent up to six hours at watchpoints within earshot of the nest and heard very little calling. And when the frequency and intensity of calling has indicated a food delivery, the male has often departed from the site within the woods or around treetop level where he cannot be seen from my position; strictly speaking, the notion that he has left is only an assumption if I have not seen him do so! In some instances he might of course remain in the general area, probably at one of his two apparent favoured perching locations (hinted at by call location; much of the woodland is too dense to move through easily and I have never been able to locate a prey plucking tree or stump as described in standard literature). I now wonder if the male of this pair is not the same as last year's, perhaps explaining the different flight habits. <br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Waiting for the call</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Any phase of calling from the nest area, but especially if prolonged, at high or increasing intensity, and with both" k-k-k" and "wee-oo" calls, is exciting to hear and brings a period of high alertness: is the male about to appear above the canopy and fly off? <br />
<br />
Occasionally he powers straight up from the vicinity of the nest tree (see composite image below) and, after some moments of soaring, usually quite rapid, tends to head off toward the shallow upper valley basin and ridges, all covered in woodland. He might be in view for several seconds although typically far more distant than would be wished; exceptionally he might pass quite close overhead instead of disappearing promptly in some other compass direction. <br />
<br />
More often, he evidently leaves the nest site at treetop level, glides downhill and gains height from a point lower down the valley (occasionally he appears from higher up instead). Then one has to be both <i>lucky</i>, to be looking in the right direction, and <i>wide awake</i>, because a distant bird moving low against a wooded background can be almost impossible to see. In these circumstances it has often been the eye-catching white undertail coverts, which, if flared, are visible even in dorsal view on each side of the tail, that give away its location. Comically, I have often found my head swivelling around seeking a Goshawk because my peripheral vision has just picked up a flash of white that turns out to be a Wood Pigeon's wing, the white rump of a Eurasian Jay, or even a white butterfly. One major difference from the male of previous seasons is that this year's male seems habitually to fly with his undertail coverts fully tucked away instead of flared; perhaps he is more relaxed or perhaps the white coverts are physically smaller?<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPvzrvAXOgy3mstlVYc9vfzu9RntQS8NqpOSJI-XWRkyE5le_v97VhGuU3z7_ITYiK094791Ab1PUYVjGEHwGTD8olNwZ1fJheATz5nY0JPkbktbz8Vb4p_WPL2GjtcfedaS8vm8qPlks/s1600/3.1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="593" data-original-width="1600" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPvzrvAXOgy3mstlVYc9vfzu9RntQS8NqpOSJI-XWRkyE5le_v97VhGuU3z7_ITYiK094791Ab1PUYVjGEHwGTD8olNwZ1fJheATz5nY0JPkbktbz8Vb4p_WPL2GjtcfedaS8vm8qPlks/s640/3.1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br />The same male Goshawk, powering directly up from the nest site in the valley below, before circling and heading off over the wooded slopes above. N Apennines. 3.vi.2017.</span></b></span></td></tr>
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<b>Some good fortune</b><br />
<br />
Yesterday I was late to the watchpoint but at almost 9.00 exactly was just about to scramble up the rock exposure on which I perch when a clear "kek-kek-kek" call, not intense but not relaxed either, came from the wood below. Very promising. Then a quiet "weeoo" wail call, presumably from the female. Then more of both calls, more intense, and signs that one or both birds were moving in the area around the nest tree. Very very promising. Then the male was up right over the site! He powered upwards, turned in a few fast soaring arcs, moved down the valley and then turned back upslope toward the upper basin and then angled over the woods above the landslip scar behind me and set in a fast glide out of sight beyond the convex wooded slopes above. So, one of few sightings so far (and still no glimpse of the female), but satisfying because he was in view for several seconds: enough to enjoy again the sight of a real live wild Goshawk over his home woods and to get a few reasonable photos.<br />
<br />
Not very long afterwards, about 10.45, I started to hear occasional quiet and soft weeoo wails from the female. These continued at intervals, with some very faint k-k-k calls between, without any obvious interaction between two adults, until 11.14 when by chance I picked up the male soaring above the opposite ridge way down the valley. It was "by chance" because I had not been aware that he was back in the vicinity. This time instead of that sense of urgency that seems to typify most of his actions, he was soaring slowly, in wide arcs, almost as relaxed as a Honey-buzzard (and not too dissimilar in shape, in fact I have confused the two in similar circumstances). He continued moving upslope over the opposite ridge, then moved across and was lost to sight on almost the same course as earlier. I could only speculate on events: perhaps he had already brought prey and both he and the female were too satiated to get worked up about insufficient food, or the male proximity to the nest, or whatever the usual cause of loud interaction may be?<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgloeKyzDvjp24YiuRXvAG5ulx60EOUCYbZ-tbwcGH1twfXrWTKbDnzzzHpAHwI1b6rUat0aSKHKbP8Mb9y-LPsidCiFUibfAdXHf5irXZqrdA8sjqonHM5TVFCY4WOtGh5nrq4KuYiWS0/s1600/3.2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="483" data-original-width="1600" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgloeKyzDvjp24YiuRXvAG5ulx60EOUCYbZ-tbwcGH1twfXrWTKbDnzzzHpAHwI1b6rUat0aSKHKbP8Mb9y-LPsidCiFUibfAdXHf5irXZqrdA8sjqonHM5TVFCY4WOtGh5nrq4KuYiWS0/s640/3.2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">The same male Goshawk: heavily cropped from images taken as he flew across the woods above my observation position, around 300 metres distant. N Apennines, 3.vi.2017.</span></b></span></td></tr>
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Apart from providing a couple of memorable episodes in open flight (yesterday, and 21 April - see previous post) this bird has reminded me that Goshawk are woodland birds: on one occasion I had no idea of his whereabouts, in the valley before me or miles away, when I caught a glimpse of him flying fast across the bottom of a sloping patch of meadow on the opposite valley side, from one wood edge to the other. He had been either moving through the canopy and took a direct line across the intervening meadow, or he might have been using what is effectively a tunnel through the woods formed by over-arching trees flanking an old-established stony trackway that passes the meadow on its course up the valley. Had it not been for that brief sight in the open I would have had no idea he was in the area: I could have been staring at the woods for another six hours and been none the wiser!<br />
<br />
With enough time and patience the chance of more encounters should improve, given that the food needs of the chicks, that I assume are present, can only increase.<br />
<br />
<br />Brian Groombridgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653209203331470836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6860726331701600040.post-76719681094798783672017-04-27T12:46:00.001-07:002017-04-27T13:54:31.837-07:00Four days,one unforgettable Goshawk sighting<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnHmG0_EeaspLozEM9MID3ZjZCUEFQspX1PUb257q3GCkUWicidDvzd1jpN-cAw9po8dWsw85fNV1us1cUDkEg48vhbiWNZ5wd09YW8ybONwdn0WaY1DJyqesc_TFkwWY73iClSjbO6Co/s1600/2.1.tif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnHmG0_EeaspLozEM9MID3ZjZCUEFQspX1PUb257q3GCkUWicidDvzd1jpN-cAw9po8dWsw85fNV1us1cUDkEg48vhbiWNZ5wd09YW8ybONwdn0WaY1DJyqesc_TFkwWY73iClSjbO6Co/s400/2.1.tif" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>Adult Goshawk </b><i style="font-weight: bold;">Accipiter gentilis </i><br /><b>N Apennines, 21.04.2017</b><br />Olympus e-m1 (I), 75-300 II</span></td></tr>
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The pale underside of a large bird glimpsed in fragments between leaves as it moved over the canopy, time interrupted in the instant it crossed a gap high overhead, big chest fine-barred: an adult Goshawk! Actually that was just an imaginary Goshawk in a recurrent daydream (the mind tends to wander after a few hours scanning the wooded slopes on high alert for calls or a hawk in flight), but a real encounter during a recent mid-April visit to the valley in the northern Apennines was much better.<br />
<br />
I had been sitting on a rock outcrop amid a high landslip scar in the wooded hills since mid-afternoon, the warmth on my face fading as the sun declined toward the distant hilltops, and the air getting colder as the freezing wind strengthened with evening. Shadow covered the slopes opposite and the valley below filled with darkness. For just the second time during the afternoon a distinct 'kek-kek-kek' call came from woods about a hundred metres up-valley from the nest site, then a stronger call from the nest area out of sight below. <br />
<br />
It seemed that nothing more would develop and, with eyes streaming in the cold, I decided enough was enough and started to head down. I had just paused to stand in the clearing at the base of my rock, enjoying the silence and the clear blue sky overhead, when there were suddenly two urgent 'wee-oo' calls from the nest area. Immediately, through the treetops circling the patch of open ground, I saw the dark profile of a large bird powering up from the slopes below. Camera and binoculars were just packed away for the steep track downhill but I knew it was a Goshawk, probably the male, and as it flew low around the edge of the landslip scar and out of sight behind higher trees I cursed for giving up my vigil at the worst time possible. Once or twice in the past I'd seen hawks flying along the wood edge around the open ground and decided to wait just in case it reappeared (meanwhile trying not to panic as I scrabbled to extract my camera). And, as if by magic, it came into view from over the higher woods above the landslip zone, soared at speed in widening arcs almost directly overhead, then moved higher and across until it must have been over the patch of woods whence the first kek-kek-kek call came. Soon more distant, it set into a fast gliding descent out of sight beyond the higher ground above. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAQDC4FjeFGHNkPGc7XJbHu2_TsVpGl9WIWNqlfzzrlwTRHrmiukbNlW4QkFpNtlFfpaRZpmJY0YKNNPYx_P4pKHIGJ40S3QZw4B7VTPVKoQG5Sr12bPHshvjt21kqgGiJSrv-CnSK3Ng/s1600/2.2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAQDC4FjeFGHNkPGc7XJbHu2_TsVpGl9WIWNqlfzzrlwTRHrmiukbNlW4QkFpNtlFfpaRZpmJY0YKNNPYx_P4pKHIGJ40S3QZw4B7VTPVKoQG5Sr12bPHshvjt21kqgGiJSrv-CnSK3Ng/s400/2.2.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Adult Goshawk <i style="font-size: 12.8px;">Accipiter gentilis </i><br style="font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">N Apennines, 21.04.2017</span></span></b></td></tr>
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The bird was overhead, at only moderate height, for at least twenty seconds and in sight but more distant for about a minute. While closer it was dramatically sidelit by the last rays of sunlight, soon to leave even the higher treetops on this side of the valley but still filling the blue sky above. Probably the most sustained view of an adult Goshawk I'd experienced, and certainly in the best lighting!<br />
<br />
So that was one great Goshawk sighting for an investment of about 24 hours of observation time over four days, and much serious discomfort from the cold of early morning or late afternoon. Light-headed with the thrill of the encounter, that seemed like an excellent outcome, and I skipped down through the darkening woods without even trying to restrain what must have looked like a mindless grin on my face. Less intensely exciting, but certainly more significant, was the fact that rare calls over the four days demonstrated that two Goshawk were still present in the nesting valley and apparently centred on the same nest site (as suspected back in March, see previous post). <br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Any lessons?</b><br />
<br />
OK, never mind the romance, what has been learnt? Next year, despite that stroke of good fortune, I probably will not plan a visit in April. It seemed to me that the male restricted almost all his activity to the woodland proper, but of course he may have appeared above the canopy when I was not on lookout (eg. at dawn, when I have to admit the cold deterred my ageing bones). If sightings are exceptional, audible calling was also very infrequent, in marked contrast to the month before and the month following. In March, pairing, mating and nest preparation involve much activity and lots of excited calling. In May, assuming chicks are present, the male should be in active flight for hunting more often, and vocal communication between the pair becomes vigorous around prey delivery; later on there can be high-intensity calling as the female ensures the male keeps his distance from the nest.<br />
<br />Brian Groombridgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653209203331470836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6860726331701600040.post-70510421428145624962017-04-04T09:31:00.000-07:002017-04-04T09:31:32.540-07:00Mist, mud, and Goshawks nesting again!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhbcMoS3Vf93nkDrF8bkn_CREwlIy-aBeyVrV9Ltrwi_S3Qaa91iHdg3A5R7CpY-FlZXFjk6LV5A0G3QwWZ4T9nvSBseDXoyapJebKdtBlO2cS-ewN4GZOyFwrVOIMVPixtZ6l0fNanOc/s1600/1.1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhbcMoS3Vf93nkDrF8bkn_CREwlIy-aBeyVrV9Ltrwi_S3Qaa91iHdg3A5R7CpY-FlZXFjk6LV5A0G3QwWZ4T9nvSBseDXoyapJebKdtBlO2cS-ewN4GZOyFwrVOIMVPixtZ6l0fNanOc/s200/1.1.jpg" width="173" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Male Goshawk, 24.iii.2017</span></td></tr>
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<i><span style="color: #0b5394;">(for basic background information on the locality, click on the separate page tabs above: 'Location' and 'Nesting site')</span></i><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
The 23rd of March 2017. For my first visit to the site since autumn 2016, I went up to one of my usual watchpoints, a high and open former landslip scar that gives a useful view over the valley woodland, including the airspace above the nest site, itself deeper in the valley centre, hidden by the slope and by the trees edging the landslip. Calls from the nesting woods can easily be heard, and hawks in flight can sometimes be seen if above the canopy. <br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwT_elHsnn55dxMqa3_qCx2dXoO9yioHvn0o64gnrRbIBxVVKInX2BY7f4_LWxiXGPlVnWW9Q4hyvjxSuSvXDS-Rj2WuCOwzR3Z7HlzI6pwVTV5DQgHDZHNfMQYWhWlc72MbEHhYzF0DA/s1600/1.2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwT_elHsnn55dxMqa3_qCx2dXoO9yioHvn0o64gnrRbIBxVVKInX2BY7f4_LWxiXGPlVnWW9Q4hyvjxSuSvXDS-Rj2WuCOwzR3Z7HlzI6pwVTV5DQgHDZHNfMQYWhWlc72MbEHhYzF0DA/s320/1.2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Sitting out in the rain on an Apennine hillside, hunched up under a not quite waterproof cape was not exactly the scenario I'd imagined while struggling to endure the dull cold Cambridgeshire winter. <br />
<br />
The steep track up was difficult in parts; slippery stones and glutinous mud where a tractor had recently been labouring up to a small patch of hillside cultivation. Grey cloud off the cold Ligurian Sea streamed over the mountains to the west, grey cloud crept up the valley from the Po plains to the east, and the very air seemed made of water, misting the landscape of leafless grey-brown woods (photo left). But the wind was gentle and the damp air was mild. Soon an occasional relaxed ke-ke-ke call, or quiet wee-oo wail, came up from the unseen valley woods in front of me to confirm the happy fact that at least one Goshawk was present near the old nest site.<br />
<br />
<b>From my notes</b><br />
<br />
<b>24 March 2017</b>. Saw high accipiter, possible Goshawk, from stream crossing ca 11.30. 12.15 heard calls around white edge area. Ca. 13.00 k-k-k and wee-oo calls near site, then together from above and below site, ie. definitely 2 birds present. Soon two birds calling at same time, loud and fast, "weooweeoo", probable mating; then occasional k-k-k and wee-oo calls. More sporadic over next half hour. <br />
<br />
13.25 couple more weeoo calls, louder, apparently higher in canopy and so suggesting imminent flight, then bird up from patch above nest site; fast direct powered flight downstream, just above treetops, passed near white edge watchpoint, then around uphill toward principal ridge above C., out of sight behind higher ground. Now 13.33. <br />
<br />
14.25 Sparrowhawk across old landslip scar: instant impression small and fluttery, marked contrast to Goshawk just seen (adjective 'moth like' came to mind at the time but not an exact resemblance).<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbKMVtfkRY8wsix-w5-DpXr3cF-BsJyoyK1cozOU2woafFM5CnG_h_Wh4dQgAH81hEc4fzQTVQX1l1SnZukaU0XbNw0JSxz-kPRq6dnXxvG9_F3PuCx48o5ykVfpTpS3bYzbszni_wOrU/s1600/1.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbKMVtfkRY8wsix-w5-DpXr3cF-BsJyoyK1cozOU2woafFM5CnG_h_Wh4dQgAH81hEc4fzQTVQX1l1SnZukaU0XbNw0JSxz-kPRq6dnXxvG9_F3PuCx48o5ykVfpTpS3bYzbszni_wOrU/s640/1.3.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Goshawk, probably adult male. Not much colour visible in the dull conditions but some typical structural features can be seen. 1: head and neck prominent, 2: bill distinct, looking deep at base, 3: wing appearing relatively long, tapering hand, 4: body somewhat bulky, deep at belly. 24.iii.2017, N Apennines.</span></td></tr>
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<br />
<b>25 March 2017</b>. 08.55 weeoo call heard near fork to white edge watchpoint. Continued uphill through scrub at base of landslip scar. More calling with some apparent changes in bird's position. Then 2 birds together, then bit quiet, then slight increase in frequency and volume, bird promptly up. Circled down valley just above trees, past white edge area then across valley and back upstream along opposite slope and then lost, apparently down among trees. 10.37 high raptor over, probable Peregrine? 11.00 2 x Common Buzzard around peak at top of valley. Occasional quiet k-k uphill from site. 11.40 Gos crossing lower valley apparently from area where earlier bird lost, Sparrowhawk following apparently encouraging Gos to keep moving, Gos gliding on as if unconcerned (very obviously larger, bigger mass of flared white undertail coverts).<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtyQ_55kHPrhPi9GidlsRF-uiSsUwUlXUyeJMfbIAtFwOAAWiQOSxFOV02CMmkNr0B4VBATcsNlBoHdBIqsSMUtXnaykYKSEG-02gcYeuIBpOUT1pCtODfpB40sG7GvCl7qk7i_HOVOCs/s1600/1.4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtyQ_55kHPrhPi9GidlsRF-uiSsUwUlXUyeJMfbIAtFwOAAWiQOSxFOV02CMmkNr0B4VBATcsNlBoHdBIqsSMUtXnaykYKSEG-02gcYeuIBpOUT1pCtODfpB40sG7GvCl7qk7i_HOVOCs/s640/1.4.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Goshawk, adult male, probably same bird as above. Note prominent white supercilium, broader posteriorly, also bulky body and distinct white undertail coverts (not flared out). Exposure in some images emphasises contrast of wing barring although wings appear largely pale grey to white in live view. 25.iii.2017, N Apennines.</span></td></tr>
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So, - wonderfully - everything looks good for another nesting attempt! Same nest, two birds, lots of vocalisation, apparent mating, same flight movements as last year. I don't know if the hawks are the same individuals as last year, and never will know for sure, but because they are based at the usual nesting patch it seems likely that one or both of the pair has used the nest site in previous seasons. In some populations, breeding pairs rarely use the same nest in succeeding seasons, but may use alternative nests in the same territory (see Kenward, 2006); however, at this location the same nest seems to be used more often than not (but I cannot confirm the same birds are involved). This has been vital in allowing me to gain a little more experience with the species, because although I have walked extensively through the hill woodland in this area I have not yet succeeded in locating another Goshawk nest site. My guess is that there are very few nearby areas with the preferred slope, aspect, degree of disturbance, and open structure, ie. tall trees and clear flight channels. Whatever the ecology, it really is so exciting to know that, potentially, another season of being close to Goshawks lies ahead.<br />
<br />
I had been watching webcam images of the urban pair in Riga (Latvia) visiting their previous nest from early January, sometimes bringing twigs or rearranging those already present, and listening to mating events in March, apparently all on nearby trees, not on the nest itself (ie. off camera). The live stream is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzioHRLRBmw" target="_blank">HERE</a>, and an active message board is <a href="http://www.looduskalender.ee/forum/viewtopic.php?f=100&t=794" target="_blank">HERE</a>. Four eggs have now been laid, between 24 March and 1st April. One salutary lesson from this webcam has been that adult birds can be at the nest, if only briefly, or in its immediate surroundings, from mid-winter onward whereas, in my ignorance, I had assumed from the lack of evidence at my few short winter visits that "my" nest area is usually deserted until spring.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Kenward, R. 2006. <i>The Goshawk</i>. T & A D Poyser, London. (reprinted 2007).<br />
(Links referenced above were verified on 4 April 2017). </div>
Brian Groombridgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653209203331470836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6860726331701600040.post-77758396270872908952016-09-19T03:45:00.003-07:002016-09-19T03:45:47.315-07:00Juvenile Goshawk appears<div style="text-align: right;">
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuT7ORehBz24X5YIOy1mPJ18ksG7wqLzTA_bo77K5GwH0n14QPmmL9b-pYIhiVLOhLr8SdEUKmUgAJGkWYiY17qI-1nveyDm0Td_XZfdMEpakzJgMJ-392y8RoC8y8qgTrkXv00BDGpJw/s1600/21_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuT7ORehBz24X5YIOy1mPJ18ksG7wqLzTA_bo77K5GwH0n14QPmmL9b-pYIhiVLOhLr8SdEUKmUgAJGkWYiY17qI-1nveyDm0Td_XZfdMEpakzJgMJ-392y8RoC8y8qgTrkXv00BDGpJw/s400/21_1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Juvenile Northern Goshawk <i>Accipiter gentilis</i>, wings partly<br />flexed in </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">medium glide, secondaries bulging dorsally, <br />crossing ridge crest, </span></span></b><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">12.ix.2016, N Apennines.</span></b> </span></td></tr>
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In the last post I mentioned one possible opportunity for coming into contact with adult Goshawks before the next breeding season: "<i>I have previously seen distant 'probable' Goshawks around the craggy rock peaks of the local mountain toward the end of the year...</i>". <br />
<br />
It's a beautiful place to be, in the right weather, and can be good for raptors, which tend to pass low after crossing the lower wooded slopes, or to hunt around the gnarled volcanic outcrops. Of course, some judgement over timing and positioning, and a lot of luck, are needed, but it can be more productive than the lower valley. A high proportion of the birds seen in late summer are juveniles.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSRWz4rGnJvh90BGjkZoK2te8IbwOsVJGTkBHegJcTRwXm9H98CHnn-au5OYdspfqzjuSKRFwcZ1YoGEwlqIj33UG1iWhpmsdZtGfXJuKXhQYnO9G2ctYNw17CqWFylbQYbmRrtwknX9E/s1600/21_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSRWz4rGnJvh90BGjkZoK2te8IbwOsVJGTkBHegJcTRwXm9H98CHnn-au5OYdspfqzjuSKRFwcZ1YoGEwlqIj33UG1iWhpmsdZtGfXJuKXhQYnO9G2ctYNw17CqWFylbQYbmRrtwknX9E/s320/21_2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Common Kestrel <i>Falco tinnunculus</i> and Sparrowhawk<br /><i>Accipiter nisus</i> during one of their frequent<br />noisy interactions, 12.ix.2016</span></b></td></tr>
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These first two weeks in September, just past, have been blessed with continuous fine warm weather and the spectacle of juvenile Kestrels and Sparrowhawks chattering and shrieking at each other as they contest occupancy of the tops. <br />
<br />
Occasionally all the Black Redstarts <i>Phoenicurus ochruros</i> vanish from the rocks they were perched on and you know a juvenile Peregrine is about to arrive like a thunderbolt, with a peremptory call, ripping the calm air as it stoops down the sheer northern face. Or Hobbies will arrive in twos and threes, spend no more than a minute almost brushing the grass as they streak around the outcrops then disappear into high skies to the south. And more rarely a migrant Marsh or Montagu's Harrier will cross the mountain after leaving its summer home in the nearby lowlands.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsZskRr3Eud9TfTP4qPjV7NuhE4DXBTQQEYemanR0EGKpHLF712EjaS8Y04Z8E8M0zgju8MmEvsxVlQfwhUvod9W3SqXFFo3RH_2Ucy8-Mhg6OqhZS9zduRqeas6Ia2FE2bBiVY46AC1c/s1600/21_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsZskRr3Eud9TfTP4qPjV7NuhE4DXBTQQEYemanR0EGKpHLF712EjaS8Y04Z8E8M0zgju8MmEvsxVlQfwhUvod9W3SqXFFo3RH_2Ucy8-Mhg6OqhZS9zduRqeas6Ia2FE2bBiVY46AC1c/s400/21_3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Sparrowhawk briefly in view while hunting around the<br />northern face of the mountain, 12.ix.2016</span></b></td></tr>
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But then on 12 September what I had thought was one of the three Sparrowhawks seen regularly over the mountain, perhaps lurking around the shaded sheer northern face or moving between woods on different sides, registered as distinctly larger than expected as it passed obliquely overhead before gliding out of sight over the clifftop. I could not make it out in life but the couple of images taken showed the dark-streaked buff underbody of a juvenile Goshawk, the first I'd seen since mid-August!<br />
<br />
It would be great to know if it was one of 'mine', born in the valley trending toward the north from the base of the northern face, or a bird in the process of dispersing from a nearby valley. It remains to be seen, assuming I'm able to return to the site in the autumn, whether I'll run into an adult up there, and be able to identify it before it passes out of sight.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4y2vm3fS-8YT1zaa6vq_W2e7UUoyE1xK3XbImd-qZ3UJEQ67XH3Dwo6yC0xdadmRYqFH2cZE69xtFBG69GI5gSRJXX1b8D_HBcGy7RABUY3GUFOxL4TYrSnrO2h4RvLOiab_2Juj_u80/s1600/21_4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="340" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4y2vm3fS-8YT1zaa6vq_W2e7UUoyE1xK3XbImd-qZ3UJEQ67XH3Dwo6yC0xdadmRYqFH2cZE69xtFBG69GI5gSRJXX1b8D_HBcGy7RABUY3GUFOxL4TYrSnrO2h4RvLOiab_2Juj_u80/s640/21_4.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Hobby <i>Falco subbuteo</i> (left) and Peregrine <i>Falco peregrinus</i> (right), both juveniles,</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">during one of their brief appearances over the ridgetop, 12.ix.2016, N Apennines</span></b></td></tr>
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Brian Groombridgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653209203331470836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6860726331701600040.post-86531275753737723402016-09-03T03:53:00.000-07:002017-02-28T14:20:06.986-08:00Summer ends & even the juvenile Goshawks disappear<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmcz_unk2DLiO97sJdUqpCDONAHn5l0DYghVX7rHkvhz2uigveoLcZLFTVrxEvEquvwBjtdW4NZF0uEKtVMxeuC2-7hohDEvhQPG9nZXFBTdhcasHMdJvve6Q0B8MAxp5ZcU8Z-9RQKcQ/s1600/20_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmcz_unk2DLiO97sJdUqpCDONAHn5l0DYghVX7rHkvhz2uigveoLcZLFTVrxEvEquvwBjtdW4NZF0uEKtVMxeuC2-7hohDEvhQPG9nZXFBTdhcasHMdJvve6Q0B8MAxp5ZcU8Z-9RQKcQ/s640/20_1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Juvenile (Northern) Goshawk <i>Accipiter gentilis, </i>N. Apennines, 29.vii.2016<br />The slightly bulging crop indicates the bird had recently received food</span></b></td></tr>
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Returning to the Apennines on 20 August after a week at home it felt as if the breeding season had come to end while I'd been away. Nothing seen or heard since then has changed that impression. So, from a happy period when a sight of Goshawk in flight could almost be relied on at some point during the day, to now, when there is scarcely any evidence that there is a Gos anywhere in the vicinity.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnirD82XofE6AYexbiH7-THlNaL_ADrrkCZ55d02NIR-oGccjAjUVL_xdY25hT4h720Lc9FTwbizo9xoUoiCSLJ_s8-udwfHlQ6PqDP9H38k6orMa6dAs-JS1NUL7y0HJUqa-PWYv1jVo/s1600/20_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnirD82XofE6AYexbiH7-THlNaL_ADrrkCZ55d02NIR-oGccjAjUVL_xdY25hT4h720Lc9FTwbizo9xoUoiCSLJ_s8-udwfHlQ6PqDP9H38k6orMa6dAs-JS1NUL7y0HJUqa-PWYv1jVo/s400/20_3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Male Goshawk, distant bird in the dull cloudy conditions typical<br />of spring 2016 in the north Apennines.</span></b> </td></tr>
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That 'happy period' extended from late spring to late summer, chiefly when the provisioning male of the nesting pair was most active in May and June, and then when the fledged juveniles started open flights above and beyond their natal woods in late July and early August. The traditional period for Goshawk watching in the UK extends over a couple of weeks in late winter and early spring when adults display over established or potential breeding territories but (as noted in a previous post) my visits to this Apennine location, hoping to see display, have always been hampered by cloud or rain or snow.<br />
<br />
No sightings at all since I've been back, and just one "kek-kek-kek" call from the nest area on two different days, sounding full and robust so perhaps an adult. I probably inadvertently triggered the first of these because it coincided with me walking along the track that passes through the nesting woods; although I never like to cause any disturbance, I was pleased to be reassured that one of the hawks was still present.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnLiXVUDO_WsfNX408SfU_iezF-5D_-1pzI1TyAwDYmUepslajrD3wMXKX3d_dI2jnmg5U_w6mei2KKr0AxmQaGuPF_VJfLGvnqGxpO0Rvq2f-6whnvdl3Jw6tXSEsGb28IuXW4sVfT9A/s1600/20_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnLiXVUDO_WsfNX408SfU_iezF-5D_-1pzI1TyAwDYmUepslajrD3wMXKX3d_dI2jnmg5U_w6mei2KKr0AxmQaGuPF_VJfLGvnqGxpO0Rvq2f-6whnvdl3Jw6tXSEsGb28IuXW4sVfT9A/s400/20_2.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Juvenile Goshawk, N Apennines, 28.vii.2016</span></b></td></tr>
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I'm pretty certain that time spent at a watchpoint overlooking the nesting area now would probably be better used elsewhere, but it remains to be seen if Goshawks will be seen during less narrowly focused excursions into the hills. I have very occasionally seen them flying in autumn in past years but never worked out a way to increase the chances of contact.<br />
<br />
There may be one opportunity: I have previously seen distant 'probable' Goshawks around the craggy rock peaks of the local mountain toward the end of the year, and the provisioning male was often seen heading that direction (and one once showed up for a split second to terrorise and scatter a group of three juvenile Sparrowhawks I'd been watching ducking and diving around the main peak). But very long odds indeed on being up there at the right time and looking in the right direction!<br />
<br />
<b>Schedule of events at and around the Goshawk nest site, 2016</b><br />
<br />
End March to start April<br />
<br />
Much activity in immediate vicinty of nest tree by adult pair; lots of calling, including several phases of loud and increasingly excited screaming, probably signalling copulation events.<br />
(estimate laying around mid-April, hatch late May)<br />
<br />
Late June to late July<br />
<br />
Young are heard calling but apparently remain under or within the tree canopy for three or four weeks once presumed able to fly (I do not know the actual branching and fledging dates because I do not attempt to directly monitor the nest and surroundings).<br />
<br />
Last week in July.<br />
<br />
The first few flights in open airspace above the canopy. These tended to extend only within a few hundred metres of the nest site, with both juveniles remaining relatively close (estimated up to about 200 metres apart). (I was uncertain if there was a third less advanced bird at this period, and still have not seen more than two juveniles together). During what I assumed is a food delivery by an adult, often signalled by a kek-kek call, juveniles still tended to converge from separate locations up to perhaps 400 metres away, screaming excitedly.<br />
<br />
First week in August<br />
<br />
Flights became distinctly more ambitious about a week after their first extensive flight in open airspace above the nest valley, and each of the two juveniles started to take their own separate flightpath. Birds were seen to soar higher, almost out of (binocular-aided) sight; they have been seen to overfly adjacent valleys and mountain blocks, at least one or two kilometres distant; they have interacted with other raptors.<br />
<br />
Second week in August<br />
<br />
As the first week to 10 days of flights strongly centred around the nest location ended, during the second week of August in the present case, there was also little evidence of juveniles congregating excitedly when food was brought. Once I heard birds calling apparently in response to each other but with no auditory sign of any movement toward each other. <br />
<br />
End of August<br />
<br />
Where are they now? With no visual or auditory evidence of their presence by the second half of August, I have no way to know whether the juveniles have permanently dispersed or are still present for some periods in their natal woods.<br />
<br />
<b>Typical juvenile movements</b><br />
<br />
I tried to relate these observations to the typical behaviour of young as summarised on p146 of Kenward (2006, also see more substantive text in the Markers and movements chapter):<br />
<i>"After fledging to neighbouring trees, Goshawks remain within 300m of the nest for about three weeks until their flight feathers harden, at 60-65 days old, after which they routinely move within 1km of nests but with occasional excursions up to ten kilometres away".</i><br />
<br />
It seems likely that the major part of July, during which I heard young calling and moving within the woods toward a food delivery, but did not see them, corresponds to a first phase of spreading from the nest prior to the 65-day threshold when the flight feathers are fully developed. The last week in July showed the start of open flight above the woods but mainly together (two juveniles) and mainly within the nest valley, and within just a few hundred metres of the nest. According to my observations juvenile flights became quite suddenly more ambitious over the first week of August, with juveniles flying separately, going to great height at times, and moving at least a kilometre or two to adjacent valleys and hillsides. <br />
<br />
If the 65-day threshold corresponds to the start of above-canopy flights by the two juveniles together, that would place the hatching date around 20 May and laying in mid-late April. Whatever the dates involved, it was satisfying to find that my observations about juvenile movements under the canopy, free flights in open airspace above the woods, still with some social cohesion; followed by longer distance individual flights, less cohesion, and probable dispersal, are in accord with far more precise observations by others, notably the radio-tracking studies synthesized in Kenward (2006).<br />
<br />
<b>Summer ends...</b><br />
<br />
Apart from lack of visible Goshawks, autumn is clearly approaching. There is not quite a chill in the early morning air, but certainly a freshness. One apparent sign of autumn is slightly misleading: the extensive areas of brown that have spread over the hills are not autumn leaves, about to fall, but the hop-like fruits of Hop-hornbeam <i>Ostrya carpinifolia</i>, which appear in summer and seem unusually abundant this year (below, left). But now the air is often filled with the mysterious soft fluting calls of Bee-eaters <i>Merops apiaster</i>, moving away from their breeding sites in the lowland; "mysterious" because their loose and open groups (below, centre and right) are often high enough to be almost out of sight. It is a clear signal of the approach of autumn because their calls are never heard here in the mountains except during a week or two at the end of summer. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLKYZKnLzQfq23jkZ4V5Qe0pYg1hIwhEZiSqoNer-DVquEMaFIDDboKINBk0UC14A5pl5dLIWiELq1x1RKbIDfCz0O4q4yBqPx49XP-B5y7Pr-csEfFUJHGSORoddfGIAq-shMA-Abm0k/s1600/20_x.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLKYZKnLzQfq23jkZ4V5Qe0pYg1hIwhEZiSqoNer-DVquEMaFIDDboKINBk0UC14A5pl5dLIWiELq1x1RKbIDfCz0O4q4yBqPx49XP-B5y7Pr-csEfFUJHGSORoddfGIAq-shMA-Abm0k/s640/20_x.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Fruits of Hop-hornbeam (left), Bee-eaters (centre and right). N. Apennines.</span></b> </td></tr>
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<br />
Kenward, R. 2006. The Goshawk. T & A D Poyser, London. (reprinted 2007).<br />
<br />Brian Groombridgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653209203331470836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6860726331701600040.post-17240419816652382702016-08-11T07:57:00.003-07:002016-08-15T12:23:14.782-07:00All change at Goshawk site: adult female reappears, juveniles move further afield<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH3ols-0qqbmAYEG19lJujn8PtGIJ-l2yp3lZ_pF8zvF7t7HQoKawf-1cCiGbQJPkWIVlBctSE3h0mVknQGOYVYPKMBVag3zdW_aArjqASeZBzANYXBSf1PGKngZY20Ld7rzqRN90zkr0/s1600/19_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH3ols-0qqbmAYEG19lJujn8PtGIJ-l2yp3lZ_pF8zvF7t7HQoKawf-1cCiGbQJPkWIVlBctSE3h0mVknQGOYVYPKMBVag3zdW_aArjqASeZBzANYXBSf1PGKngZY20Ld7rzqRN90zkr0/s400/19_1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Adult female Goshawk, 11.viii.2016, N Apennines</span></b></td></tr>
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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. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZQ9um9TJ7shxjL8TuosjBzdMU3OpNk569futuITS86DdAAOHfSX4wkVQsacEV9849-dwcYjZIDAbqJS_BGPS_kY2z5jc7Ka-f0kixbONdufQOHxADu30rVYg7aj2Et0nNU-6kVR1oTps/s1600/19_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZQ9um9TJ7shxjL8TuosjBzdMU3OpNk569futuITS86DdAAOHfSX4wkVQsacEV9849-dwcYjZIDAbqJS_BGPS_kY2z5jc7Ka-f0kixbONdufQOHxADu30rVYg7aj2Et0nNU-6kVR1oTps/s320/19_3.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Juvenile Goshawk, 9.viii.2016, N Apennines</span></b></td></tr>
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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.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDiUXPZJfC8iO5uKFacXi14wVphaEPXU7bCz1AIo-Zk07V8x-f_5s6C4Z3NT5MfXnknwVKaQ2g_xuF_zvIfTU31_3egkEBYVFVxNsGb1YE-DVel_awWfv1iyPbpTJrYyOU0ZQFg7MQRhA/s1600/19_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDiUXPZJfC8iO5uKFacXi14wVphaEPXU7bCz1AIo-Zk07V8x-f_5s6C4Z3NT5MfXnknwVKaQ2g_xuF_zvIfTU31_3egkEBYVFVxNsGb1YE-DVel_awWfv1iyPbpTJrYyOU0ZQFg7MQRhA/s400/19_2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">The adult female Goshawk, 11.viii.2016, N Apennines</span></b></td></tr>
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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! <br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDnAiCftqrYP7lroAwd7TrefFc6ICWi5eln1JKaLGFOCJVOkRVgpzaXtuo0v6x9tF2PGQyL7sp_NuHgW9wHj6WnzHoQwqZo2VuYQWohKykMSSdO4sbsje54ETYj2quH0z1pI6INoQd7TA/s1600/P8110006_cr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDnAiCftqrYP7lroAwd7TrefFc6ICWi5eln1JKaLGFOCJVOkRVgpzaXtuo0v6x9tF2PGQyL7sp_NuHgW9wHj6WnzHoQwqZo2VuYQWohKykMSSdO4sbsje54ETYj2quH0z1pI6INoQd7TA/s320/P8110006_cr.jpg" width="223" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">The mystery pale bird</span></b></td></tr>
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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?<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPhtRy4_L-tSLr3NPP6sC58uOhhyphenhyphen6eyZM2m9eenvhapnEWJF5GiYSY0XPLN2WKxzxAilBkm_wyk69rtL_IknI3SrM7ntmcR4k5tgu96YkpTLyuum7aeXGoWMha-NhOwQ62Eh3JBK_SYtE/s1600/2016-08-11_153456.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="468" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPhtRy4_L-tSLr3NPP6sC58uOhhyphenhyphen6eyZM2m9eenvhapnEWJF5GiYSY0XPLN2WKxzxAilBkm_wyk69rtL_IknI3SrM7ntmcR4k5tgu96YkpTLyuum7aeXGoWMha-NhOwQ62Eh3JBK_SYtE/s640/2016-08-11_153456.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">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.</span></b></td></tr>
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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! <br />
<br />
<i><b><span style="color: #274e13;">Addendum. 13.viii.2016</span></b></i><br />
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. <br />
<br />
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. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-yS7WhKdh9SGesjasT3X7KKVdXwUE1UAT6kMN1NHyJiMci1Sbjgd-7Xb3gRVPQ_JtzXjXnMUvixA80Lpb4j7LJWjMvCCzB3wIszlfsLWihRm4vthlG2CKIFKOIoslB9cs2O18ioHvsR4/s1600/P8120159mail_cr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-yS7WhKdh9SGesjasT3X7KKVdXwUE1UAT6kMN1NHyJiMci1Sbjgd-7Xb3gRVPQ_JtzXjXnMUvixA80Lpb4j7LJWjMvCCzB3wIszlfsLWihRm4vthlG2CKIFKOIoslB9cs2O18ioHvsR4/s320/P8120159mail_cr.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Male & female juvenile Sparrowhawks, 12.viii.2016</span></b></td></tr>
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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!Brian Groombridgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653209203331470836noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6860726331701600040.post-81137856671239334892016-08-04T08:47:00.001-07:002016-08-04T08:47:50.629-07:00Flight behaviour of the juvenile Goshawks<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi57CEKdtEOMAPVGo6dCYA-VBE26TOFW3cIfSxKyKTHT1JCITEY9Ys-Tb52GqvrLXE_GUPPnA7049ZZscma8Cw_Qaz4l3hq0spUGLCXJAy7sSPCeubqZ6d5BLDbbXmin7s7vVA05XgQy7s/s1600/18_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi57CEKdtEOMAPVGo6dCYA-VBE26TOFW3cIfSxKyKTHT1JCITEY9Ys-Tb52GqvrLXE_GUPPnA7049ZZscma8Cw_Qaz4l3hq0spUGLCXJAy7sSPCeubqZ6d5BLDbbXmin7s7vVA05XgQy7s/s640/18_1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">One of the two juvenile Goshawks now flying freely in open airspace. 29.vii.2016. N Apennines, Italy. The pale buff ground colour and dark-streaked chest and belly are characteristic of juvenile Goshawk.</span></b></td></tr>
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It takes a lot to get me up at 6 o'clock in the morning, but the chance of close contact with young Goshawks flying around above the woods in their home valley does the trick. The plan has been to climb up to the nest site, more specifically, to my 'edge' watchpoint that overlooks the valley below the nest site, before one of the parents makes a first food delivery. The hope then is that, as seems to be usual, the juveniles will take to the air after eating. As the previous post noted, 25 July was the first time this year I had seen the juveniles in flight in open airspace above the woods, and I've been up to the valley every morning since (writing on 3 August). During each of those ten days, there have been phases of 'wee-oo' calling from juveniles, moving in the woods between about 200 metres above the nest location and 500 metres below, and my visit has coincided with flights on seven mornings.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8EiTeJkuFW4b65JM990u3UEOW8iQAlrh0Ek69YBj2xasUAY69JpQy-XpyuE9SWM-ulFw8JR0KoRtBieE9PciQaeDxrt5feQdLMaUeRgLYRWZGGKBifyyBT8H6UgPbfqPs_NFy4R7J0B8/s1600/18_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8EiTeJkuFW4b65JM990u3UEOW8iQAlrh0Ek69YBj2xasUAY69JpQy-XpyuE9SWM-ulFw8JR0KoRtBieE9PciQaeDxrt5feQdLMaUeRgLYRWZGGKBifyyBT8H6UgPbfqPs_NFy4R7J0B8/s400/18_2.jpg" width="298" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Juvenile Goshawk <i>Accipiter gentilis</i></span></b></td></tr>
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The morning of the 29th was fairly typical of the first few days (apart from the possible adult hawk arriving). I had heard no sounds from down in the valley as I walked up on the path through the woods on the eastern slopes. At about 8.00, through the screen of branches extending over my head from the woods behind, I glimpsed a bird fly quite fast above the 'edge' heading toward the nest site; this is out of view upstream, behind a buttress of rock and screen of trees to my left. I had the impression it was the adult male Goshawk, although I did not get a good view of it. Whatever that bird was, a couple of minutes later a wild cacophony of screaming from at least two juveniles broke out. I could hear them, rather than see them, moving through the treetops below me, uphill toward the nest area. Then the calls seemed to return to near the original position below me. Frantic screams followed for a few seconds, then one source of calls moved position up the valley again. Then there was silence again. I did not see an adult leave (it was typical, back in June, to see the male leave, but has been very unusual in July). It seemed almost certain from the calls that there had been some animated discussion about a food item, but that both juveniles may have got some.<br />
<br />
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The quiet lasted nearly an hour, then there were a couple of wailing calls below. They seemed to indicate an excited state, but not the hunger-driven desperate sounding calls around the assumed food delivery. Then a few more calls, then suddenly a juvenile launched from the woods and flew fast across the opposite valley slopes. In hindsight, the characteristic pace and pitch of the calls suggested that the bird was working itself up toward flying out of the woods, but that could be entirely fanciful!<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWsnJZx4KHRamcC9L0MtMM-iPhYetkT5u5ctqH2GbwmOA-eUyL2qs-uiz7SqMgvUC6zWhvqtKtiqUFq7zKIdz4Vm0ikfF-5MstmP__cY9Q76-x_FAff34yTLBGU2S5pS5VtY-C2KJ_nVk/s1600/18_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="363" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWsnJZx4KHRamcC9L0MtMM-iPhYetkT5u5ctqH2GbwmOA-eUyL2qs-uiz7SqMgvUC6zWhvqtKtiqUFq7zKIdz4Vm0ikfF-5MstmP__cY9Q76-x_FAff34yTLBGU2S5pS5VtY-C2KJ_nVk/s400/18_3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">One of the juveniles in mid call.</span></b> </td></tr>
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The first bird was soon joined by a second, and, as on previous mornings, they began to soar up, alone or in synchrony, or fly in pursuit of one another, soon covering the full width of the valley (around 700 metres at this point) and gaining height until they broke above the skyline. Their frequent wild screaming calls helped make the occasion just unforgettable. While rising up in this way they would often fly past my 'edge' watchpoint at eye level, sometimes at very close range, and then disappear for a few moments over the woods behind me before reappearing, and perhaps diving down to the bottom of the valley, grappling in a whirling tumble of pale underwings and spread tails. They would then vanish, but I couldn't tell if they had flown off for a greater distance or returned down to the woodland canopy closer to the nest site. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVFP-8rRQaIArTyfWgDB0wolIu_drmTOgcQ_FuAzrSqy4QnqKa-R2ay7E4T9TjHPZRUrESD5IVV8jWn45_YyxpQDov3-PWjU1a23xdyszPaCd3rPm1G-SwOb4sb49_F2ZvwDalffE1TqQ/s1600/18_4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVFP-8rRQaIArTyfWgDB0wolIu_drmTOgcQ_FuAzrSqy4QnqKa-R2ay7E4T9TjHPZRUrESD5IVV8jWn45_YyxpQDov3-PWjU1a23xdyszPaCd3rPm1G-SwOb4sb49_F2ZvwDalffE1TqQ/s640/18_4.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Sequential images of juvenile Goshawks grappling during an early flight, 1st frame on left. 25.vii.2016. N Apennines</span></b></td></tr>
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Once, I could just follow one young Gos as it flew a sinuous track among the higher tree crowns below, small birds scattering ahead; then it flew directly into an opening of a tunnel-like enclosure of trees arching over a stony track through the woods, and I could hear its calls as it followed the path up along the western slope! Which, if habitual, perhaps a foraging route for adults, could explain why I once found a Goshawk feather on that track.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirV825DZz0377IPPt4LSOdYvocPKQ3dPqDK-_qRKTjmjcY6-2G4fvCS04lV276vf9s3OpGNKEhdOLq2SCRcKTYYd1CbkJfiu_JmYEuyDc_TfJ-9rIZ99-zZ4FkbhJy7Ph3gPxD8hK8IBs/s1600/18_x.tif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirV825DZz0377IPPt4LSOdYvocPKQ3dPqDK-_qRKTjmjcY6-2G4fvCS04lV276vf9s3OpGNKEhdOLq2SCRcKTYYd1CbkJfiu_JmYEuyDc_TfJ-9rIZ99-zZ4FkbhJy7Ph3gPxD8hK8IBs/s400/18_x.tif" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Juvenile Goshawk, July, N Apennines</span></b></td></tr>
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This basic pattern was extended on the following (sixth) day. Some while after they had flown together around the valley and then gone out of sight, one bird appeared from the direction of the nest site, calling. On its own still, it soared quickly up, well above the valley, and kept going up until it was barely visible without binoculars. From a height it then moved off uphill toward the rocky peaks of the local mountain, just over 2 kms distant. Exactly the flight pattern the provisioning male often took after a food delivery, and I had to check carefully while still within range to make sure it was a juvenile. About 45 minutes later (around 11.00) I started hearing persistent but distant Goshawk calls, they gradually became less distant, and eventually I picked up a high hawk approaching. It came closer, crossed the valley and started flying uphill again following the ridgetop opposite. This bird turned out to be a juvenile and quite possibly the same one that earlier set off in the direction whence this one appeared.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvUpKQ17kp5uq6mYGdeug90hkJj32rVj-AYvrA36j_h5SBah04MqpkJ973OwEKmMFPrGh0c7KHX8t9MPx5SxNvp8XhPvOyVpqJ8SSWxeZMkgHDqMtsM9m5TAxVKlc_PL-eipnhK1CYTH4/s1600/18_y.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvUpKQ17kp5uq6mYGdeug90hkJj32rVj-AYvrA36j_h5SBah04MqpkJ973OwEKmMFPrGh0c7KHX8t9MPx5SxNvp8XhPvOyVpqJ8SSWxeZMkgHDqMtsM9m5TAxVKlc_PL-eipnhK1CYTH4/s640/18_y.jpg" width="504" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Juvenile Goshawks: part of one interaction</span></b></td></tr>
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Since that sixth day (30 July), one or both juveniles have been seen to fly higher and/or longer distances from the nest valley, and in one instance at least, to behave more 'confidently' in flight. <br />
<br />
On August 2nd, for example, one of the juveniles had soared to medium height above the lower end of the home valley, moved across to the valley on the far side of the western boundary ridge, then abruptly and strongly powered upward towards a higher approaching raptor. This turned out to be a Honey-buzzard, and a couple of fast swooping dives by the Goshawk encouraged on its way. <br />
<br />
Today (3 August) was interesting. While at the 'edge' watchpoint I managed to glimpse an adult Goshawk, that I presumed was the male after a food delivery. He soared high from close to the nest site, then headed toward the rocky local mountain and was soon lost. As he left there was a phase of penetrating screaming wail calls from the juveniles, and they burst out of the woods, flew downhill, soared quite slowly in widening arcs, and went separate ways. One crossed the adjacent side valley, heading for a prominent wooded mountain; the other headed uphill along the western ridge of the valley where I soon lost it (while tracking it's sibling). So, three of the Goshawk family had gone their separate ways.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5psYYFT93WbQ4Hqx6K6gQgK6zLTM49_mHOYVJN2_v0AjOIXc-sjIysap4C8ZC5FfnNh0F17Y-i-fnuZARRN6scbu4TyGgR1z3KrzGqoOgWOKSWIDmkjGg1HJXD25_Oqr9xvMz0aOrZRs/s1600/18_5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5psYYFT93WbQ4Hqx6K6gQgK6zLTM49_mHOYVJN2_v0AjOIXc-sjIysap4C8ZC5FfnNh0F17Y-i-fnuZARRN6scbu4TyGgR1z3KrzGqoOgWOKSWIDmkjGg1HJXD25_Oqr9xvMz0aOrZRs/s400/18_5.jpg" width="301" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Juvenile Goshawk harried by Kestrel <i>Falco tinnunculus</i><br />3.viii,2016. N Apennines</span></b></td></tr>
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I then left the side valley where the Goshawk nest is and walked through the woods to a small high meadow giving extensive views over the main valley itself. I was hoping to pick up one of the local Honey-buzzards in flight, but the main bird of note was a Goshawk. I heard what sounded like the same juvenile wailing calls I'd been listening to in the morning. Then the source came into view, rising from the far unseen side of the convex slope below, it was indeed a juvenile Goshawk, probably one of the valley two: it was being harried by a Kestrel, and headed towards perhaps more familiar terrain just over one kilometre away.<br />
<br />
So, picturesque details aside, the basic pattern of early juvenile flight behaviour (of this brood) seems to have been:<br />
<br />
1) Remain mainly under and within the tree canopy for something like four weeks once able to fly (I do not know the actual fledging, branching and flying dates because I have not directly observed the active nest or the woodland immediately around it).<br />
<br />
2) The first few flights in open airspace above the canopy tend to be limited to a radius of a few hundred metres from the nest site, with both juveniles remaining relatively close (estimated up to about 200 metres apart). (I'm not certain if there is a third less advanced bird). <br />
<br />
3) Flights have been distinctly more ambitious after day 6, and each of the two juveniles has started to take their own course. Birds have soared higher, almost out of (binocular-aided) sight; they have been seen to overfly adjacent valleys and mountain blocks; they have interacted with other raptors.Brian Groombridgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653209203331470836noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6860726331701600040.post-41288850649328706542016-07-28T12:54:00.002-07:002016-07-28T12:54:43.542-07:00Juvenile Goshawks flying free!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyXFALZd7wM1hMx65HVpIv6uUEL4H1JOWuQvKF3XAzgG_ByN3ZnlBU_ZtB8daQXEtfqAcUf8YOO6sln_ygkSOTqAt_Z5qICNbmMDr49R6QUlu-lBx9kD71onID9WxzwUoHiIFZJ9Ug5jA/s1600/17_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="374" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyXFALZd7wM1hMx65HVpIv6uUEL4H1JOWuQvKF3XAzgG_ByN3ZnlBU_ZtB8daQXEtfqAcUf8YOO6sln_ygkSOTqAt_Z5qICNbmMDr49R6QUlu-lBx9kD71onID9WxzwUoHiIFZJ9Ug5jA/s640/17_1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">One of the two juvenile Goshawks, 25.vii.2016, N Apennines</span></b></td></tr>
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In the previous post I mentioned that I hadn't been expecting juveniles flying free above the woods for some days yet, simply because last year it was about a week into August before I saw one. On the 25th I went again to the narrow ledge at the top of a rocky outcrop on the valley side downstream of the nest area. The site itself is not visible from that 'edge' watchpoint, but the valley downstream extends left to right (north) immediately below the edge, and the male typically flies (like a rocket through the treetops) down this section of valley after a food delivery. I went along there mid-morning again, hoping that I might by a stroke of good fortune coincide with a food drop and get a chance of seeing one of the adults. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiQ_iE0LLjbxu5LONo2oW2RHm63ASRP-IgFpAXDOywQIeZR-oqNOn4ToK4nNpOQBr_N3tN_v-HBlixUmSjBjbP66ZmfFd7krenmN12LvKZszORiLn1p-dWtP2aR7YsvZUanfqHVDsxktA/s1600/17_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiQ_iE0LLjbxu5LONo2oW2RHm63ASRP-IgFpAXDOywQIeZR-oqNOn4ToK4nNpOQBr_N3tN_v-HBlixUmSjBjbP66ZmfFd7krenmN12LvKZszORiLn1p-dWtP2aR7YsvZUanfqHVDsxktA/s400/17_2.jpg" width="282" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">juvenile Goshawk, 25.vii.2016</span></b></td></tr>
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For about an hour and a half there was just a sporadic juvenile Goshawk cry, similar to the adult wail but weaker and higher in pitch. At first, each set of three would be separated by 10 or 15 minutes, but abruptly and for no visible reason, the gap shortened and then there was a flurry of excited calling from at least two birds together. I was on the alert in case an adult had just brought food and would be visible leaving the site, but instead the calling got louder and even more urgent, apparently closer. Then I caught side of a Goshawk flying quickly up from woods downstream of the nest site, at first close to the foot of the far slope of the valley, then higher and out into the open airspace above the valley and in front of my watchpoint. It had the streaked breast and slightly more delicate appearance of a juvenile, and was promptly followed by a second!<br />
<br />
With almost continuous calling, the two Goshawks dashed around the area right in front of me, sometimes apart, sometimes chasing and grappling with a sudden flash of underwings and spread tails, gradually spiralling wider and higher. One would often come within about 20 metres of my position, half-hidden by the overhanging leaves from the wood at my back. The fast-flying hawks above, the wild shrieking calls: all this and a summer's day in the green hills!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZHuuI-5IOVtrELRwinsnyWm2ySZJPGYjuXCLg7tXSniUApIaPtTwT_IPEFot_GOoMhmCtqTnRAXjKo-pBLB1JRiWJGhLi9U9QHgSn_TKw-2MCM8Wd6S4PTdcqpA49HT7zTC83nkcXS0E/s1600/17_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZHuuI-5IOVtrELRwinsnyWm2ySZJPGYjuXCLg7tXSniUApIaPtTwT_IPEFot_GOoMhmCtqTnRAXjKo-pBLB1JRiWJGhLi9U9QHgSn_TKw-2MCM8Wd6S4PTdcqpA49HT7zTC83nkcXS0E/s640/17_3.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">juvenile Goshawk, 25.vii.2016, N Apennines</span></b></td></tr>
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After a couple of minutes the two moved away over the woods behind, still calling, then returned, then as they moved away behind again, their calls became fainter and stopped. I waited a long time but didn't see them return, and don't really know if they had already returned to the nest site from a different direction or had moved away for wider exploration. I strongly suspect, but don't know for sure, that this was their first extended flight above the canopy; I've visited the watchpoints around the nest area often this month, and have only heard evidence of juvenile movements within the woods, ranging between an estimated 200 metres upstream from the nest tree and 200 m in a downstream direction.<br />
<br />
For concentrated excitement, and sustained proximity to wild raptors in flight, I can't imagine those minutes will be surpassed. It was deeply satisfying because I've spent too many hours trying to keep in touch with key events at this nest, listening for calls and looking out for Goshawks in flight in the valley. And too many hours worrying that someone will disturb them, or that another night's torrential rain or leaf-shredding hailstorm would be one stress too many, or that the male will not be able to keep the food supply going, or that a fledgling will fall from the nest. Of course it's somewhat absurd to get personally involved, but there it is. <br />
<br />
Perhaps it was so moving because this year I've been lucky enough to follow events from late March, when the adults were starting to reoccupy the nest site, and mating (often, judging by the bouts of increasingly frenzied calling), right up to the juveniles flying free above the canopy (there might be a third to make that step, perhaps significantly younger, judging by the thin calls still coming from the area when the others had flown off).<br />
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Brian Groombridgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653209203331470836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6860726331701600040.post-72747837763621185262016-07-25T06:17:00.000-07:002016-07-25T12:06:27.074-07:00July 2016, progress report<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZT2-92wRIiNdoqBuv9tJBOyglPYFU613mDXACa-ftjRODACCO2eGXBz2F5KpuyDu845y-E_MohNyvQMwEPAWMCmfhwYffKMu6tJjKiSiHzVhxEb9W0VENsDcCJxZUhyphenhyphenrggHZCZ_Hd4CE/s1600/P7160008ed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZT2-92wRIiNdoqBuv9tJBOyglPYFU613mDXACa-ftjRODACCO2eGXBz2F5KpuyDu845y-E_MohNyvQMwEPAWMCmfhwYffKMu6tJjKiSiHzVhxEb9W0VENsDcCJxZUhyphenhyphenrggHZCZ_Hd4CE/s400/P7160008ed.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Distant Goshawk heading for the ridge, 16.vii.2016</span></b></td></tr>
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So, back in the Apennines since 9 July, and the first unpleasant lesson has been that it is now very much more difficult to see the male Goshawk. Not really sure why this is. Presumably the female is now hunting more for herself and the young, and now that this responsibility is shared, the male does not need to be rushing around in such conspicuous haste. Perhaps the female spends even less time flying in open airspace above the woods than the male does. It may also be that the female tends to be less protective of the nest once the young are flying within the wood, so the male is perhaps under less pressure to keep his distance.<br />
<br />
It must be safe to assume the young have fledged, because since arriving back I have heard their relatively 'thin' wailing calls from different points within a couple of hundred metres radius of the nest. I have not yet seen one in free flight above the woods this year; last year they did not appear in open flight until early August.<br />
<br />
But I did see one in the woods by accident a couple of days ago. I was on the trail that goes up the valley and passes quite close to the nest tree (the nest can just be seen from the trail in winter when the trees are bare, if you know where to look). The trail loops around above the site and crosses to the other side of the valley, but above the site the loop crosses the same seasonal torrent that then flows down past the nest tree. In fact, it is almost bone-dry this July (baking hot in contrast to wet and chilly June). A juvenile Goshawk must have heard my approach because it flew up, with a cry, from the bottom of the deep and narrow torrent bed just below the trail. Peering down I saw that a couple of tiny pools remained, dammed up behind boulders; the bird had been out of sight but must surely have been next to the water, presumably drinking. It was certainly a young juvenile, dark sooty brown dorsally and very raggedy in appearance, but easily able to take off from a constrained space and slip away between tree trunks to somewhere near the nest, where it wailed again a couple of times, provoking a sibling (or two) to join in.<br />
<br />
I was sorry to have disturbed it, but confident it could return to the water if needed, and very happy to learn that at least one of the brood is now able enough to take off from the ground. In late July last year, returning from a period at home, I found remains of a near-fledgling Goshawk (flight feathers still emerging) that must have fallen to the ground, or been blown from the nest, and been unable to take off again.<br />
<br />
Over several days since arriving back (not quite so many hours total observation time as in May-June) I have only twice briefly seen an adult. A few days ago I was in fields at the lower end of the valley, close to the village, trying to pick up any Honey-buzzard flight over the panoramic expanse of woods above, but instead saw a Goshawk fly fast over the treetops of the wood bordering the upper meadows, and cross the valley to the ridge on its western side. It then followed the ridgeline up towards the mountain at the head of the side valley, pausing to repeatedly circle a couple of sections, as if looking closely for potential prey (composite image below). This is the route most commonly taken by the adult male after leaving the nest area, and it was in one of those sections the bird was examining, where coppicing has left a micro-mosaic of wooded, bushy and open patches of ground, that I once saw a Goshawk perched early one autumn evening. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCIrFVqONdOpenE8iMqTPBAIZFffDDu2b6dZJ3qGdYRFUFj-PivSfeSs24M8mRNlszRZIXfi4yLUxYADmudqvtSQHDAPMmPIPuqlb0gaHW9KisYfBLgBdDi4JPtgqT4-RQCNryhlc6csM/s1600/16comp1rz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCIrFVqONdOpenE8iMqTPBAIZFffDDu2b6dZJ3qGdYRFUFj-PivSfeSs24M8mRNlszRZIXfi4yLUxYADmudqvtSQHDAPMmPIPuqlb0gaHW9KisYfBLgBdDi4JPtgqT4-RQCNryhlc6csM/s640/16comp1rz.jpg" width="528" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Adult Goshawk foraging. Composite image to show aspects of flight shape (not plumage detail!) and a little landscape for context. Note long-winged appearance, broad secondaries almost 'stepped' up from the narrow hand, and very conspicuous white 'flashes' (lateral undertail coverts) that seem to be prominent at all times in the breeding male (not sure about other periods). N Apennines, 16.vii.2016</span></b></td></tr>
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Then yesterday I was at one of my old watchpoints, that has a view of the valley downstream of the nest site, listening hard for the sporadic calling of juvenile Goshawks (slightly distracted by an occasional distant Honey-buzzard whistle-call, and the screeching of a Peacock kept by someone in the village below). About a minute after a short spell of agitated wailing, apparently from two juveniles, unseen but not far below, an adult came fast down the centre of the valley, turned a couple of relatively wide and slow circles over a patch of cut hay-meadow, and vanished again into the woods.</div>
Brian Groombridgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653209203331470836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6860726331701600040.post-91231975480873859612016-07-02T12:42:00.000-07:002016-07-02T12:42:45.029-07:00Flight direction of the male Goshawk leaving the nest<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5P8jRjYcFYFd3PrLhpXvltFquYWi6UMK6gBN2DC52OjRRL7P5aRw7RL7eDxwZg0afu-Juloa530_nvzTJcazuJDPnwlFbdVh5EBJbqQPP9BV1dYDGXTM1AuvNt6h1sHLePL22Cc76OiY/s1600/P6100033ed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5P8jRjYcFYFd3PrLhpXvltFquYWi6UMK6gBN2DC52OjRRL7P5aRw7RL7eDxwZg0afu-Juloa530_nvzTJcazuJDPnwlFbdVh5EBJbqQPP9BV1dYDGXTM1AuvNt6h1sHLePL22Cc76OiY/s400/P6100033ed.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Male Goshawk gaining height at the start of a <br />foraging trip after leaving nest site, probably <br />heading for the first ridgeline or the valley<br />beyond. Note white undertail coverts either<br /> side of tail. 10.vi.2016</span></b></td></tr>
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I left the Apennines on 21 June and have since had opportunity to reflect on my attempt over the past few weeks to get more familar with Goshawks. <br />
<br />
Quick recap: I found the Goshawk nest by chance in 2008; it was used by a Common Buzzard in 2011, and by Goshawks certainly for six of the seven remaining years (no data for 2009). That's 7 out of 9 years up to and including 2016. My main hope for 2016 was that a Goshawk pair would again use the known nest and breed successfully. <br />
<br />
Visits in March-April confirmed that an adult pair were active at the site and, having listened closely to vocalisations from the nest area in June, I believe that when I left the valley the pair had produced at least one near-fledgling (making wailing calls noticeably 'thinner' and quieter than the adult). It might become clear later (plan to return mid-July) if there is more than one juvenile, but an accurate count will not be possible just by listening for calls. If last year is any guide, juveniles may be expected occasionally to fly above the canopy from late July onward.<br />
<br />
Given a nesting pair, my next priority was to observe from the few locations on the surrounding wooded hillsides, such as the edge of an old meadow or rockslide, giving some view of the wider landscape and of the airspace above the nest, in the hope of seeing the male more reliably. I also wanted to try and get some decent images, less distant than hitherto. As noted in the intro pages (see "Nesting Site" page) there is no view down onto the canopy of the woods where the nest tree stands; closer trees block any direct view from all watchpoints in the surrounding area, but the airspace above the nest site and up and down the valley in which it is situated can be scanned.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicZQnpr233hnO1y7Rv20paY7LfHaJ1OI5YbCUWvKSu1W2U9c8HhbOO90J_ruOQI4uHw2BOuR8wQrhe3wTksGAtG4blAc_4Ie_3ePCl8xHex6Ut17BBZ2R7WskqJP053sSXxrxjWTkKdus/s1600/P6130117xrsz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicZQnpr233hnO1y7Rv20paY7LfHaJ1OI5YbCUWvKSu1W2U9c8HhbOO90J_ruOQI4uHw2BOuR8wQrhe3wTksGAtG4blAc_4Ie_3ePCl8xHex6Ut17BBZ2R7WskqJP053sSXxrxjWTkKdus/s400/P6130117xrsz.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Male Goshawk moving along the far slopes of the nesting </span></b><br />
<b style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">valley </span></b><b style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"> at the start of a new foraging trip after leaving </span></b><br />
<b style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">nest site. </span></b><b style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"> Note white undertail coverts and </span></b><br />
<b style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">bulging crop. 13.vi.2016</span></b></td></tr>
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It's OK to hope, but best not to have expectations, and essential not to be in a hurry. The cool rainy or stormy weather throughout June meant that sessions were often abandoned, or I didn't even leave the house, and because of the apparent scarcity of other raptors this year, I spent countless hours trying to stay alert while gazing at wooded hills and an apparently empty sky. This has its charms, but can pall after a while.<br />
<br />
But I did get to see the adult male several times. The usual course of events was that I'd suddenly hear a loud "kek-kek-kek" call, perhaps a couple, perhaps with one or two "wee-oo" wails, then I would become hyper-alert for the male in flight. Typically, very soon after the calling (a few seconds or couple of minutes), he would streak away downhill among the treetops in the centre of the valley, parallel to the main torrent in its deep-cut channel. Variations in the height of trees along the valley might give me a lucky glimpse of him in flight, but often I would only pick him up once he'd travelled 750-1000 metres downslope from the nest site and turned back to fly diagonally up the opposite valley slope and back along the crest, past the nest area and toward the higher woods. Sometimes, instead of doubling back and zig-zagging up along the crest, he would soar upward, usually fast but sometimes more relaxed, and move off toward nearby hillsides.<br />
<br />
Twice he appeared to head straight up the valley slope opposite my usual position before turning to move uphill parallel to the crest, and three times he moved in the opposite direction, more or less toward my usual position and the out of my sight over the wooded slopes behind me. A couple of times I first saw him higher up the valley after an apparent food drop; I don't know if he headed this way straight from the nest, or if he'd taken the usual downhill route and I had failed to notice him before he'd worked his way back up the valley. <br />
<br />
The map below attempts to represent this information. Essentially, he usually leaves low or very low in fast direct flight down the centre of the valley, he will then usually turn to his left (ie. west) and move up over the far slopes of the valley, often directly over the ridge crest, toward the higher outcrops to the south. Sometimes he would drop down on one side then the other (something like a scaled-up Sparrowhawk zig-zagging along a hedgeline); often he'd move across to the far side and not reappear. During my observation times he left by this route more often than all the other routes indicated combined.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYMFkzFNH-CWJPVeaon_pxkf0lr2IyvWWYNmcvHkt1UurhFrwFeEXJ9TbJqNSHu0qBKcFB1YFfWTLCARPX3PvHI0adSehYMcUeOlUQcJNSRDsW4xd9vjqKqELrxDrg10T8_MCI_bsjxjc/s1600/vall1tester1drsz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="540" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYMFkzFNH-CWJPVeaon_pxkf0lr2IyvWWYNmcvHkt1UurhFrwFeEXJ9TbJqNSHu0qBKcFB1YFfWTLCARPX3PvHI0adSehYMcUeOlUQcJNSRDsW4xd9vjqKqELrxDrg10T8_MCI_bsjxjc/s640/vall1tester1drsz.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Sketch map to show initial route of male leaving the nest site. Red dot indicates location of nest; orange arrows represent flightpaths, their width indicates frequency (ie. the male most often leaves down the centre of the valley). Green lines are contour lines at 100 metre intervals; the land slopes from south to north and rises to over 1400 m beyond the lower left (southwest) corner of the map. Grey bands suggest main ridge features. Dashed blue lines show hill torrents, draining in general to the north and east. The three green stars indicate location of main observation points (the eastern point on the 800 m contour is the one I most often use). </span></b></td></tr>
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There is a location along that ridgeline where trees overhang a stone trackway and patches of partially coppiced woodland; I have several times heard a Goshawk alarm call here and once, at dusk, briefly saw a bird perched over the track that could only have been a Goshawk. I suspect this is the kind of terrain that the male would often perch on the lookout for prey.<br />
<br />
His most frequent departure route means that he is at minimum 700-800 metres away by the time I see him, ie. I have lots more images of a distant male Goshawk. On the rare occasions when he left low over my position, his much greater relative speed meant that my camera (unsuitable for birds in fast flight) could not find focus before he was out of sight over the woods behind me. Cue expletives.<br />
<br />
Once, I had been in position for a couple of hours, and had just put my camera down and picked up a pencil to make some notes; at this moment the male abruptly rose up from the nest woods and flew directly overhead giving me just enough time to grab only one nearly sharp image (crop shown in the previous post, but here's the image again, below). There had been no sounds to indicate he'd just delivered food; I guessed that he'd been resting in the vicinity of the nest site since before I arrived in position, having delivered prey some time earlier. Several images of the departing male show a distended crop showing that he had consumed some of the prey he'd brought. <br />
<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIY-r4auSXspYqL6nItv8saZWjIqzCVteu3JEuC1KUOIg8N7ERASs6hzGqd2SCvpjOz_iZfb_RKoHhDs2RgHZfIus2SK9fKZ0jbWCAmxHPKaMzdB6dd8-X1M2Pd-cRJYBhAN3in0ufTVQ/s1600/15-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIY-r4auSXspYqL6nItv8saZWjIqzCVteu3JEuC1KUOIg8N7ERASs6hzGqd2SCvpjOz_iZfb_RKoHhDs2RgHZfIus2SK9fKZ0jbWCAmxHPKaMzdB6dd8-X1M2Pd-cRJYBhAN3in0ufTVQ/s640/15-4.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">The breeding male leaving overhead after a food delivery, N Apennines, 30.v.2016</span></b> </td></tr>
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It is exceptional to see the male arriving and I infer that he typically does so under or within the woodland canopy. I have only once seen him arrive at the nest area in open flight during the season so far, and only once in previous seasons. One morning in June I was just getting organised among the broken rock of the old landslip when I heard an unfamiliar, slightly 'croaky' call, and a bird swept past from behind the treetops close on my right. I did not immediately realise it was the male Goshawk, partly because of the call and partly because the flight was unfamilar, with something of a 'fluttering' action: perhaps he was carrying heavy prey (I did not see prey) or could it have been a signal to the female (never read of this, so presumably not). He flew in a straight line to a point upslope of where I estimate the nest to be located, then a sharp turn downhill and fast descent below the trees in front of my position.<br />
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<br />Brian Groombridgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653209203331470836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6860726331701600040.post-51912111695668534752016-06-12T02:27:00.002-07:002016-06-12T02:27:14.603-07:00The 'Honey-buzzard' that was a Goshawk<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPY3WPeq-3mRlIr3cYijMTS6-j6mZtUshlI4MLLLiHkUFtnfG1kcDLIOGHPydGPky07RYPlyja_vnmE1fNhYsqbT1CZ_88wCn0At4oqrqccGaeGcX9nnsQSR6VNIMEsMiTx4VJkifIjro/s1600/14_x.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPY3WPeq-3mRlIr3cYijMTS6-j6mZtUshlI4MLLLiHkUFtnfG1kcDLIOGHPydGPky07RYPlyja_vnmE1fNhYsqbT1CZ_88wCn0At4oqrqccGaeGcX9nnsQSR6VNIMEsMiTx4VJkifIjro/s320/14_x.jpg" width="296" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="color: #0b5394;">The breeding male Goshawk, 30.v.2016</span></i></b></td></tr>
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Friday 10 June, forecast "<i>sereno</i>" (sunshine and cloudless sky) from dawn to dusk. Hah! Yea, right. Well, only a few spots of rain, but chill breezes, and clouds clustering dark and heavy right over the valley. Then, it abruptly cleared to blue sky and hot sun around mid-afternoon, by which time I was on my way back down.<br />
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It was a strange session. After about an hour I saw a raptor moving across the head of the side valley where the male Goshawk had quite often been seen, but this bird was fast, flappy and erratic, wings looking a touch shorter or broader. A Sparrowhawk.<br />
<br />
Then, after four and a half hours at the rocky watchpoint, trying to force breaks in the cloud cover by willpower alone, I picked up the thin shallow arc of a medium sized raptor lifting above the ridgeline opposite. Honey-buzzard I thought at first, and still thought after an anxious few moments when I lost it and refound it higher and closer and gliding toward my position. That 'giant falcon' shape of a gliding Honey-buzzard approaching is so typical, the wing distinctly flexed with that forward prominence at the wrist, straight trailing edge, tail closed and looking quite long with rounded end, head inconspicuous. Closer, its forward speed was suddenly startling, then the bird angled away giving a side view, dark against the grey sky, and then my last views were a series of broken images as it passed behind the trees to my left and disappeared over the convex slope above. Something about these last glimpses did not look right. Was it a Honey-buzzard? I only got a couple of poor images, but they show the bird was a Goshawk!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Vn6DmOza7OB7eHBEGiiIXMccWMg6lkfnNu4brk_EbEqmTJN3QcjDbuWfgavwOigfbOYEqCPuVzVAaS7od1Bplte5nvEnkysXUOFn1OUlAAGO8FErSd5ZaA2Hx_FJd8di5zo9uTDSyz0/s1600/14_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Vn6DmOza7OB7eHBEGiiIXMccWMg6lkfnNu4brk_EbEqmTJN3QcjDbuWfgavwOigfbOYEqCPuVzVAaS7od1Bplte5nvEnkysXUOFn1OUlAAGO8FErSd5ZaA2Hx_FJd8di5zo9uTDSyz0/s640/14_1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="color: #0b5394;">Honey-buzzard (left), Goshawk (right), to show similarity in silhouette of birds approaching<br /> in glide, rather like a giant falcon. Goshawk 10.vi.2016.</span></i></b></td></tr>
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Somewhat chastened, I resolved yet again to look thoroughly before coming to conclusions about identification. The images show subtle differences in the silhouette that I might have seen in better light, or had I not in my mind already pencilled-in the bird as a Honey-buzzard, or had I kept binoculars on the bird instead of trying for some record images. And the Goshawk image clearly shows the projecting undertail coverts on one side, which I did not see in life. The bird appeared distinctly large and bulky to me, close enough to the scale of a Honey-buzzard anyway, and I now wondered if it had to be a female Goshawk; the adult male seen quite regularly now is definitely more slender overall. It was certainly not the female that appeared over the nest woods with the male on the 7th (see previous post) because that bird was showing evidence of moult in the wing. Why have I not seen it/her before? Perhaps I have, but only at extreme range.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgumitZUQ5sOkKbuBpzpZTNx_XbiDL3QlCfw1gS24G0aKxCKz2Y6V7Qhr5tNAZ0plP1SahJecd_ZP6QaiDQWl8cOLxlJ9E35TYfTS0xPEePB-4sEh2qvbZ45gvCNFWf22m9jPi13A7XFpk/s1600/14_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgumitZUQ5sOkKbuBpzpZTNx_XbiDL3QlCfw1gS24G0aKxCKz2Y6V7Qhr5tNAZ0plP1SahJecd_ZP6QaiDQWl8cOLxlJ9E35TYfTS0xPEePB-4sEh2qvbZ45gvCNFWf22m9jPi13A7XFpk/s400/14_3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="color: #0b5394;">The unfamiliar Goshawk, 10.vi.2016, N Apennines</span></i></b></td></tr>
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The bird I now knew to be a Goshawk flew almost directly over the nest site on its way toward my position. I had not heard a single sound from the site in nearly five hours watch and now began to get uneasy. The day before I had been high on the other slope of the cloud-filled valley, trying to peer through the ribbons of cloud blowing up the slope from below. On my way down about 12.45, the cloud beginning to clear, I paused to look across over the tract of woods where I know the nest is situated. Almost immediately I heard a sudden outbreak of loud and prolonged kek-kek-kek calls and repeated wailing, some wailing calls sounding thinner, as if from at least one large chick. There was silence for a couple of minutes, then the whole strident episode started again. No bird was seen leaving the scene. But I was quite shocked by the energy put into all the calls and really wondered if something serious had occurred (wild thoughts of another Gos taking a chick, or a Marten perhaps, or the male bird even...), or could it have been just the female seeing off the male partner again? Seeing today's large and unfamilar Goshawk made me wonder again about the cause of yesterday's violent alarms.<br />
<br />
But then, at 14.10, I heard a quiet and short k-k-k call from the site, one quiet wail, and there was a bird arrowing away down the centre of the valley. The male Goshawk! So, the nesting attempt seems to be still on course. I just hope it can withstand all this rain.Brian Groombridgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653209203331470836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6860726331701600040.post-87507807550792872662016-06-10T09:13:00.000-07:002016-08-30T05:09:57.670-07:00Thank you for some heat and sunshine<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRkmcJCoRWbdmnL6R2IT9Kz_Taf6NzAqK_gUHVIJXpAvKvM6_MAZUylYiGxMHJen2r4bx4hUjRu4p02SgvzgJtvlvPMX_OEja9-rQHP-jeFasbLvI5S-EevnQzS7R47lovrS3uYm_NgCU/s1600/13_4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRkmcJCoRWbdmnL6R2IT9Kz_Taf6NzAqK_gUHVIJXpAvKvM6_MAZUylYiGxMHJen2r4bx4hUjRu4p02SgvzgJtvlvPMX_OEja9-rQHP-jeFasbLvI5S-EevnQzS7R47lovrS3uYm_NgCU/s400/13_4.jpg" width="262" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="color: #0b5394;">Male Goshawk, 7.vi.2016, N Apennines</span></i></b></td></tr>
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Day after day of maddening weather in this pocket of the north Apennines. Remorseless dark grey cloud, heavy rain showers and wind, interspersed with thunderstorms and rare blue breaks in the cloud with precious warm sunshine. My behaviour looks pretty crazy too. Set off up the Goshawk valley with hope in my heart, yesterday's rain dripping off the trees and down my neck, today's rain on its way in the dark banks of cloud already descending over the hilltops, head back down having seen little or nothing of any raptors.<br />
<br />
But what a difference a change in the weather can make! The day before yesterday (7 June) dawned with a faint mist in the valley that soon cleared in the sun's heat to leave a blue sky, from mid-morning decorated with isolated puffs of snow-white cumulus that did not build into a pall of raincloud until late afternoon. The kind of day that many here would regard as typical for June, unlike recent weeks, which have typified March or April.<br />
<br />
And straight away raptors were in view: a Honey-buzzard tussling with a Common Buzzard, another Honey, whistle-calling and wing-shivering; and plenty of Goshawk activity. <br />
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I was only just completing a first scan of the ridgeline opposite, after arriving at my observation point at around 8.30, when I picked up a Goshawk flying low over the canopy further up the valley to my left. The white undertail coverts were what drew my eye to him, otherwise I would probably have missed him against the complicated background of the wooded slope. He moved in a diagonal up towards the ridge crest, with what looked like unusually laboured and rapid wingbeats; I wondered if he was carrying a substantial prey item but could not see clearly at the distance. I momentarily lost my footing on the rocks and the small movement of my binoculars was enough to make me lose the bird. I heard some k-k-k calls from the nest area soon afterwards and wondered if he had brought food. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd_ftdjmE9IPLtEUQEO_CmDqOCGWGmHJP7vvgoKEalPDIKMVYix23E0fQxNRBf7Isxxl8ZEJfOTZXQMLlX6yY05fbATno3CAPG7J0-IXrALLjKaowoVsBruEPbDwx10rvdPGqF0TlZf1Q/s1600/13_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd_ftdjmE9IPLtEUQEO_CmDqOCGWGmHJP7vvgoKEalPDIKMVYix23E0fQxNRBf7Isxxl8ZEJfOTZXQMLlX6yY05fbATno3CAPG7J0-IXrALLjKaowoVsBruEPbDwx10rvdPGqF0TlZf1Q/s400/13_1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="color: #0b5394;">Inset: stout body & distinct 'hand' of Goshawk</span></i></b></td></tr>
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Only about 20 minutes later there was again a Goshawk in the same upper part of the valley, I assumed it was the same bird; this time he gained height and moved up the valley to fly back and forth around the rocky slopes and peaks of the local mountain. A couple of the distant images I got show a distinct bulge in the crop, so perhaps he had recently fed. He investigated the rock slopes for several minutes before moving decisively toward the high woodlands to my left, and out of sight.<br />
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About an hour and a half later I again heard a k-k-k call from the nest area, but very short and low key. A few minutes later I just glimpsed the presumed male streaking down the lower part of the valley far to my right; he must have delivered prey and then left the nest area below the tops of the trees immediately in front of me. He came back into view for a few moments, now heading back up the valley, but was soon hidden again by trees. After a few minutes, during a period of strong and agitated kek-kek-kek calling from the nest area, with loud wails, what I presumed was the same bird came back in view around the ridgeline opposite. This time he gained height in a combination of soaring and active flight, and performed a short display, quite like a Common Buzzard's 'roller-coaster' flight. He made several deep but quite rapid wingbeats, rushing upward, before hanging for an instant at the apex of a steep curve then folding his wings and arrowing downward*. Then the same again after a few seconds of lateral flight.<br />
<br />
I was amazed, partly because I had never seen any element of Goshawk display (all my late winter or early spring visits have been marred by adverse weather or lack of visible action), and partly because I could not quite read how to interpret this performance. It did not seem the appropriate time for a normal courtship display, because nesting is well-established by now (judging by calls), with the female presumably attending to chicks; perhaps it had a mainly territorial element. I did wonder, with the relatively frequent sightings of a male Goshawk, if an intruding male had appeared. At a distance, and with my poor images, I could not determine whether two males were in the vicinity.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxjqFJDHeFHAuaikxVF8_2Xn3AcRJGGs5SwnSjmH4p7yL70OG0LzzaTm9ncXpuI01BlsqJhUMrdvuPjDuZdexpmbaKoS3J6SMPcSRbwfSfOiO7Ut8LHALiF7hYwnUoPZCiix8U-fvfxpE/s1600/13_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxjqFJDHeFHAuaikxVF8_2Xn3AcRJGGs5SwnSjmH4p7yL70OG0LzzaTm9ncXpuI01BlsqJhUMrdvuPjDuZdexpmbaKoS3J6SMPcSRbwfSfOiO7Ut8LHALiF7hYwnUoPZCiix8U-fvfxpE/s400/13_2.jpg" width="293" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="color: #0b5394;">Female Goshawk, 7.vi.2016<br />Apologies for very poor quality <br />(extreme crop of soft and badly exposed image)!</span></i></b></td></tr>
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Shortly after the loud and excited calling coming from the nest area, more calling started, evidently from a bird in the air over the nest woods unseen in the deep axis of the valley below me; then another Goshawk flew actively up into view. Clearly a different bird; less slender, and larger overall, with a rather tatty appearance due to moult. I assumed this must be the female of the pair, the moult being consistent with nesting. Then there was a vigorous chase up and along the ridgeline opposite, the assumed female generally harassing the male (but positions reversed in the image shown). This behaviour is entirely consistent with several descriptions (eg. see the website cited below) of the nesting female being intolerant of the male remaining close to the nest when chicks are present, and sometimes chasing the male away. Unfortunately my camera is unable to focus on flying birds moving in front of any background except sky, so none of the images is much use. The female soon came down to the site again while the second bird disappeared down the valley.<br />
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An outstanding morning: warm sunshine, a male Goshawk in a few moments of dramatic display, the presumed nesting female up in my sight for the first time, lots of vocalisation, some fast interaction between two Goshawks. Of course, the birds are unmarked and I have never seen them 'at home' in the nest site woodlands, so my assumption that they are the nesting pair is just that! <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ6FJ-fc1XeqCNF7XROS6ZrO4gbhDZqfHyOJtNwTrRQzBj4kJYPOiOWK38AIll2Tqi6ZSuNqjp5lMNtxl_lxDldk1xrbp8CUCi8mAB1ZaJ7NHhIjEv0iHjphrnx11xScdKryY9cHxavzs/s1600/13_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ6FJ-fc1XeqCNF7XROS6ZrO4gbhDZqfHyOJtNwTrRQzBj4kJYPOiOWK38AIll2Tqi6ZSuNqjp5lMNtxl_lxDldk1xrbp8CUCi8mAB1ZaJ7NHhIjEv0iHjphrnx11xScdKryY9cHxavzs/s640/13_3.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="color: #0b5394;">Goshawk chasing; male on left, female on right in this image; mostly the other way around</span></i></b></td></tr>
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*This appears the opposite from descriptions of the 'classic' display, in which most of the upswoop is without wingbeats but the over-the-top downswoop uses wingbeats.<br />
<br />
See this brief very well-illustrated account of a watch on a Goshawk nest in England (link verified active 9.vi.2016):<br />
<a href="http://www.thebirdsofsussex.co.uk/Articles/goshawk1.htm" target="_blank">http://www.thebirdsofsussex.co.uk/Articles/goshawk1.htm</a><br />
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<br />Brian Groombridgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653209203331470836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6860726331701600040.post-74972365970154209642016-05-21T11:28:00.002-07:002016-05-21T11:28:50.037-07:00The best-laid plans...<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgylaeTXC3l51jESLjZI6dfh8vyt-2aVxraveHOGeAYSP95QAzK84OGlGGjZdtMi5jleybvbwbWpPSqXYTDjA_f9jIbCFHUv93Vvbvt4VnV-4P4yW8O7fQden7IRIV-QU5fhbpNRfOoXBo/s1600/P5210007_cr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgylaeTXC3l51jESLjZI6dfh8vyt-2aVxraveHOGeAYSP95QAzK84OGlGGjZdtMi5jleybvbwbWpPSqXYTDjA_f9jIbCFHUv93Vvbvt4VnV-4P4yW8O7fQden7IRIV-QU5fhbpNRfOoXBo/s320/P5210007_cr.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="color: #0b5394;">Almost missed it: distant Goshawk, 21.v.2016</span></i></b></td></tr>
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I have no intention to enumerate every Goshawk sighting, but this short update is mainly to continue the more optimistic outlook I had yesterday, when it seemed that my fears over the impact of torrential rain and hailstorms on this year's nesting attempt were groundless. <br />
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Shopping and washing meant I did not get to the high landslip watchpoint until late morning. The first quiet "kek-kek" from the nest site, unseen below me, was not until 13.15, but some more calling at 13.45, a little more urgent, mixed with a couple of "weeoo" wails, got my full attention. I figured the calls indicated a food delivery and began to scan the airspace over the valley downhill from the nest site, the typical route of the male leaving, wishing I had a hawk's eyesight. The tension was getting very difficult when the tiniest flicker of movement against the sky, in the opposite direction, just caught my eye. Another Common Buzzard? No, more agile, more attentuated appearance, and the big tail abruptly fanned out on a turn - just like a Honey-buzzard - confirmed it was the Goshawk! (image above) It had left uphill, perhaps within the woods, or just hidden by treetops, but it was already distant.<br />
<br />
Anyway, only a couple of poor images, but more useful information: (1) the nesting attempt seems still on course, (2) expect the unexpected!<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIdiX_lV7wCMbR8z8PyijQ1uoI1enVU5sGKUfwdQj-gXbJqZSzPJvc8xtZRok7Gye5jWYaE4lfwLh5YqZ3NJEkAh0IWH_Ci3lsb8SGQeX_AMWfExV-nuDS_4ZH654F6MBXbTGqEDUsqQ0/s1600/gp12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIdiX_lV7wCMbR8z8PyijQ1uoI1enVU5sGKUfwdQj-gXbJqZSzPJvc8xtZRok7Gye5jWYaE4lfwLh5YqZ3NJEkAh0IWH_Ci3lsb8SGQeX_AMWfExV-nuDS_4ZH654F6MBXbTGqEDUsqQ0/s400/gp12.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="color: #0b5394;">Lucky sight: note long wings, narrow hand 21.v.2016</span></i></b></td></tr>
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And there was an unexpected sighting at about 15.35, on the way back down. The track is inside the woods, with only an occasional glimpse of the sky overhead, but lower down it turns at a right-angle and at the corner a former tractor route into an abandoned hay meadow provides a wide view of the mid and upper valley basin that I'd recently left, bounded by wooded ridges and the higher mountains beyond. I make a point of always stepping into the corner of the meadow, partly for the open view after the closed woodland, and partly because there is very occasionally a raptor to be seen (once there was a probable Goshawk leaving a tree in the far corner of the meadow, it was off its perch and away into the darkness between tree trunks before I could blink). Today I looked up to see a tiny high raptor passing across a cloud: it was a Goshawk, probably the same elusive male again (image above, left). He abruptly closed his wings and fell in a near-vertical dive. He was high over the mid sector of the valley, and I guessed he was heading for the nest, but at low level he pulled out of the dive, angling away across the canopy, and from a point on his forward trajectory a pigeon-size bird rushed up from the trees and hammered away at treetop height. These events were all very distant, but I could see that the Goshawk made no attempt to pursue but abruptly changed course again and vanished behind a row of trees.Brian Groombridgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653209203331470836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6860726331701600040.post-70842784198021371172016-05-21T00:42:00.003-07:002016-05-21T00:42:55.649-07:00All's well, I think<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgajBkmWRPo2HqteWFXmyHQRPWVTzUBKOZ7DY_f2SO4MV5gZz6kfsDUlUtzTQwsJBLIO5ThcPcTMola_PvW0DPlbWm4IO2RcEz18R59tnMyskYV_4a9gdlEY6EFK99NtrBGp5_RrzvbhNs/s1600/P5200004insrsz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="475" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgajBkmWRPo2HqteWFXmyHQRPWVTzUBKOZ7DY_f2SO4MV5gZz6kfsDUlUtzTQwsJBLIO5ThcPcTMola_PvW0DPlbWm4IO2RcEz18R59tnMyskYV_4a9gdlEY6EFK99NtrBGp5_RrzvbhNs/s640/P5200004insrsz.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="color: #0b5394;">The Goshawk departing; inset confirms identity, 20.v.2016</span></i></b></td></tr>
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Much more optimistic that the apparent breeding attempt continues. Yesterday I was nearly five hours in the landslip area in the woods above the nest site, where calls can be heard, and birds flying to or from the site can sometimes be seen. Of course, they are not always above the canopy, and if they are, they are usually moving directly and at speed; factor in the distance between observer and site, and I always count myself lucky if I pick the bird up before it vanishes into the woods or over a ridge. <br />
<br />
It was on what seemed like the 100th binocular sweep across the wooded ridges facing me when I picked up a distant raptor. It seemed to have risen up from the head of the valley on the far side of the ridge opposite, but perhaps more likely had only just come into range. The bird looked good for a Goshawk: below the overall size and bulk of a Common Buzzard, wings held flat or slightly raised, moving quite fast for its size, then as it turned across the sunlight, two white plumes like jet trails either side of the tail. It glided across the northern face of the mountain, then looped back and forth apparently quite close to the tumbled rocks - presumably alert for prey - before turning decisively, still very distant, into the top of my valley*. It then lost height and I lost sight of it against the complex surface of the wooded slope. <br />
<br />
Ten minutes later there were a couple of medium strength "kek-kek-kek" calls from the nest area; ten minutes after that there was suddenly a Goshawk in the air a little downslope from the nest site, already diminishing in size as it rose up the opposite valley side and into open airspace above the ridgeline (see image above). There was a short interaction with a much smaller raptor, I think a a Sparrowhawk, that was encouraging it to keep moving away.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="color: #0b5394;">Three images of the departing Goshawk; middle catches a moment reacting<br />to a mobbing Sparrowhawk, both birds visible in right image.</span></i></b></td></tr>
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And that was all the visible action. What I saw and heard was consistent with a male coming to the nest site, I don't know whether with or without prey, and leaving on another foraging trip. The course he (I'm assuming it was the male) took when leaving was precisely the same as the male typically took in past years. Around an hour later there was a single wailing "weeoo" call from the nest site; perhaps he had not brought enough food? Let's see if a few more hours today will bring more sightings.<br />
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* I was once sitting on one of the peaks of this mountain watching at close range three Sparrowhawks, believed juveniles, zooming freely around the rocks as if in an aerial dogfight, when in an instant they vanished and a Goshawk floated into view from the cold air wrapping the sheer northern face of the mountain, like Jaws emerging from the ocean depths.Brian Groombridgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653209203331470836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6860726331701600040.post-52710485768338420002016-05-19T12:59:00.000-07:002016-05-19T12:59:10.294-07:00Troublesome waters...<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span style="color: #073763;">Juvenile from the site in August 2015</span></i></b></td></tr>
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Some worrying uncertainty over the Goshawk pair that I was fairly certain were starting to breed in early April. Back then there was lots of calling from two birds, including several spells of increasingly excited screaming that I thought were likely to indicate copulation events. But over many hours on three successive days (16-18th May) I have heard just occasional quiet k-k-k calls, mostly from different points around the middle sector of the valley, and no calls from two together. Nor have I seen a Goshawk in flight. Positive evidence, eg. the sound of a food delivery, can be gained in just a few seconds, but hours and hours of negative evidence, ie. failure to see or hear anything substantive, add up to nothing but a nagging worry!<br />
<br />
On the 15th May there were severe thunderstorms and an intense hailstorm. The storm turned out to have been far more intense around the town lower down, where the main valley meets the plain; flowers and fruits on orchard trees, grape vines, and the town centre's ornamental plants were destroyed by hailstones said to be as big as golfballs. Given the general lack of evident Goshawk activity at the site, and the possible impact of hailstorms (I'm almost certain a breeding attempt at this site in 2013 was ended by an intense hailstorm in early June that year), I decided to make an exception to my usual rule of not visiting the nest during the breeding season, and approached the nest site close enough for a visual check.<br />
<br />
With wind in the canopy, the network of torrents in tumultuous flow downhill, and the leaf litter soft and silent from rain, I'm confident that any bird present would not have heard me. However, although this patch of forest is more open than most, with tall well-spaced trees and only sparse low growth to hinder movement, it is still necessary to approach to around 100 metres to find a sightline for binoculars downhill to the nest through the dense screen of intervening lower canopy leaves, and I doubt it is possible to do so unseen. <br />
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The next 15 minutes were increasingly tense, as there was no sign of a sitting bird, such as a tail projecting over the nest rim, and no sign of any green leaves having been added, and, at distance and in confusing light, it was too easy to turn any moving leaf shadow or any leaf turning brightly in the sun into some part of a hawk. But eventually a distinct grey-brown crown raised slightly above the rim a couple of times and disappeared down again. I could not see any more detail, certainly not an eye, so cannot be certain if the bird saw me, but strongly suspect she (?) had seen me through a gap in the woven sticks of the nest rim as I approached. She sat tight, I hope on eggs or chicks, without alarming and there was no alarm from any partner perched unseen in the vicinity. <br />
<br />
I retreated as unobtrusively as possible and climbed further up the valley to an open rock area from which it is sometimes possible to see birds in flight after they have left the nest site, and always possible to hear any vocalisations from the nest or nearby parts of the valley. Nothing seen or heard, but I only had about three hours available, so could easily have missed visual or auditory evidence of any interaction. <br />
<br />
Although I did not conclusively identify the bird occupying the nest as a Goshawk, I'm pretty sure it was, but now the comforting thought that a bird is in residence is turning into renewed worry about the fate of the assumed breeding attempt after another several hours of intense thunderstorms (but no hail) today, Thursday 19 May. Brian Groombridgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653209203331470836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6860726331701600040.post-15973730599225636902016-04-07T04:21:00.002-07:002016-04-07T04:25:16.982-07:00Goshawks 2016: early spring, a pair on-site again!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-size: small;"><i>Goshawk leaving nesting site, <br />N Apennines, 1 April 2016</i></span></td></tr>
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So different from the heat-hazed green slopes of summer, the north Apennines in winter can feel austere and unwelcoming, the naked contours of the land revealed through the leafless trees, sometimes layered with snow, sometimes showing only the pale brown carpet of dead leaves. But by late March, flowers of Cornelian Cherry (<i>Cornus mas</i>)and Italian Maple (<i>Acer opalus</i>) stand out here and there on the hillsides, patches of yellow and yellow-green among the vast grey-brown expanse of bare beech and oak branches. <br />
<br />
Already a bit late in the year, I was resigned to not seeing any Goshawk display flights (and never have done because every late winter visit so far has coincided with low cloud or rain or thick snow), but I still hoped at least to confirm the presence of Goshawks, and perhaps get some idea of the chances of nesting in the side valley used in several recent years. To hear something would be fine, to see a bird would be great. <br />
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I arrived on March 30th to find the hills slightly brighter than the cloud-covered Po plains, with a few moments of veiled sunshine, but it was windy and cold as I set off uphill in the late afternoon. Nothing seemed to be moving in the silent hills, and the weather was hardly uplifting, but after about an hour I heard a faint and slow "ke--ke--ke" from the centre of the valley ahead. As I continued uphill, the calls became faster, more urgent, and then a female joined in: "wee-oo, wee-oo, wee-oo". The calling subsided as I reached my destination: the top of a small steep meadow enclosed in the woodland where the open slope allows a reasonable view over part of the tree-filled central axis of the valley, including the area where the Goshawks nest (the only Goshawk nest I've found in the area). Although the nest itself cannot be seen, nor can the nest tree be picked out from this viewpoint, any calls in the vicinity can readily be heard and the birds themselves can <u>very</u> occasionally be seen in flight. Any such views are unpredictable and usually fleeting (the adult male may be more active during nesting but seems mainly to arrive unseen below treetop height, and typically heads down the valley from the nest close to treetop height and does not appear in open airspace until a couple of hundred metres downhill).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: small;"><i><span style="color: #073763;">Cornelian Cherry (left), Italian Maple, flowering in March</span><b> </b></i></span></td></tr>
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As another spell of calling started, first slow, then more urgently, it was suddenly reminiscent of summer last year, listening to calls around food delivery or wails from young wanting food. Then at about 19.00 hrs, as the weak late light lifted toward the higher slopes, the calling quite suddenly became more intense, faster and louder, so the single wailing cries of the female for a few seconds turned into a sustained "wee-oo-wee-oo-wee-oo", like an emergency vehicle siren. I guessed this probably marked a copulation event, which can be noisy and very frequent in the period before egg-laying (see Cramp & Simmons, 1980, Kenward, 2006, and sources therein). <br />
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Even without sight of the hawks it is marvellous just to be certain they are there and to revel in the sense of wild nature their energetic calls evoke. But crucially, I now knew that a male and female Goshawk were present, probably a mating pair, and they were in the precise area of woods where a pair has nested in several previous years! That was the information I had been hoping to gain, so anything else would be a happy extra.<br />
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The following day (Thursday 31 March 2016) I headed up the opposite side of valley on the old track through the woods that passes at one point within about 100 metres of the nest tree (see "Nesting Site" page), then headed off at a right angle to the valley axis up to a small patch of landslip boulders within the woods. This site does not give a view directly onto the canopy of the nest area but does allow a reasonable view of part of the airspace above it, and allows calls in the area to be heard clearly. Typically a bird does not fly up straight from the nest but glides far downhill below or barely above treetop level before emerging briefly into view a couple of hundred metres away; such birds are very easily missed. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-size: small;"><i>Distant, but certain Goshawk, <br />31 March 2016, N Apennines</i></span></td></tr>
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There were a few relaxed "ke--ke--ke" calls through the morning, and a few short spells of wailing, but I had no clear idea of recent events at the nest when at 11.30 I caught sight of a distant raptor just breaking the skyline of the opposite ridge having apparently risen from the valley bottom some way downhill. Looking slightly like a scaled-down Honey-buzzard in shape, quite long-winged, large tail fanned widely in turns and twisting one way and the other. Clearly a Goshawk, it stayed relatively low while moving up along the ridgeline opposite and then disappeared out of sight on the far side of it. I would have bet good money that it had left the nest area moments before, glided a few hundred metres down-valley across the treetops and then started to climb, as the foraging male habitually did in previous seasons. The bird was distant when I first saw it but one tiny image shows a typical Goshawk shape, including the longer arm and narrow hand (relative to Sparrowhawk).<br />
<br />
Silence until about 13.00, then more "ke--ke--ke" calls, then faster "kek-kek-kek", then some soft "wee-oo" wailing. Calls gradually became more frequent until about 13.30, when a loud semi-duet turned into the same fast siren-like "wee-oo-wee-oo-wee-oo" that I'd heard the previous evening. I guessed this was another copulation event. Then about an hour later on my way back down to the village, I was next to the track on a slight prominence below which the ground falls away steeply toward the central torrent, and peering past the tree trunks into the open airspace beyond, when I saw a Goshawk gliding through the haze above the wooded depths of the valley, not yet distant and initially almost at my eye level. Trying to track it as it moved in wide circles (appearing very leisurely but covering a lot of ground with scarcely a wingbeat) I soon lost it, obscured by the dense screen of bare branches rising from the slope below, but saw it for long enough to note a large bulge in the crop. I could not tell the sex but wondered if this could have been the female, perhaps after consuming food provided by the male earlier in the day?<br />
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Friday 1st April, same location. Most cloudy with occasional weak gleams of sun, chilly. Two tractors were in a patch of thinned woodland on the opposite slope, noisily collecting logs cut last summer. Goshawk calls continued as before, with long periods of silence, then spells of low intensity calling, then sometimes louder and more urgent, sometimes apparently both male and female. But I could not sense a definite pattern and could not visualise possible events in the nest area. Then, with no hint of any interaction at the nest, a Goshawk was suddenly in the air above the site; it banked rapidly and flew fast but with few wingbeats downhill and out of sight beyond the wooded convex slope below. I just had time to register the generally pale underside as it banked (ie. an adult bird) then grey-brown dorsally, a few dark tail bands, white alongside the tail base and a dark mask-like patch behind the eye. Only managed one image before nearby branches got in the way.<br />
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Saturday 2nd. Similar phases of quiet and of calling. Mid-morning loud wailing calls and kek-kek-kek calls suddenly from trees close on my right but no bird visible and no bird seen to fly there. Confusing and frustrating! Then one glimpse of a raptor plummeting from that area toward the stream channel in mid valley. During the next hour there were just a few calls, apparently from a bird moving from tree to tree in the nest area, until a little after midday there was an excited "kek-kek-kek-kek" from the site and several seconds afterwards I just picked up a hawk heading for the nest site in a shallow but very fast dive from a point above the lower end of the valley. The bird at the nest site must have seen it approaching well before I was able to. It disappeared into the canopy, possibly a little way uphill from the actual nest site, without checking speed. I had never before seen a bird arriving at the nest site! I could not see if it brought prey, but there were soon spells of "kekking" and some wailing which accelerated to a shrieking crescendo, followed by silence...<br />
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So, a very productive visit: calls confirmed presence of Goshawks at the nest site, apparently a mating pair, with a couple of lucky sightings of birds in flight (and on April 1st I heard my first cuckoo of the year!). If my calculations are correct, working back 75-80 days from apparent fledging around late June/early July in recent years, the female could even be laying during the next week. Indications are that they may have already chosen to nest again at the known site. Must not tempt fate but I am daring to hope that things turn out this way, and that I'll be able to listen and look for them at intervals over the coming months.<br />
<br />
Cramp, S & Simmons, K E L (eds.). 1980. <i>The Birds of the Western Palearctic, Vol II</i>. OUP, Oxford.<br />
Kenward, R. 2006. <i>The Goshawk</i>. T & A D Poyser, London. (reprinted 2007).Brian Groombridgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14653209203331470836noreply@blogger.com0