What is this about?

Adult male Goshawk: 
poorly exposed image but silhouette shows 
typical longish wings with narrow hand, 
rounded tail end, & distinct neck. 17.vi.2015

I began putting this material together to help me get an overview of events scattered in recent field notebooks, but then thought extracts might be of some interest to others fascinated by the (Northern) Goshawk Accipiter gentilis, but with no direct experience of it, or with only limited experience.  I'm  in the latter category, not having seen a Goshawk for certain until 2008 and still (late 2015) with only limited experience despite many hours of endeavour.

The first series of posts refer to my attempts over the past few years to become less unfamiliar with Goshawks.  Subsequent posts will, it is hoped,  report on significant encounters in future seasons (2016 onward).

All observations have been made in an area of wooded hills in the northern Apennines (in Piacenza Province, Emilia Romagna, Italy).  See separate pages on 'Location' and 'Nesting site'.  The same area has provided observations of Honey-buzzards reported elsewhere (see 'Honey-buzzard stuff'  http://honey-buzzard.blogspot.co.uk/).

All images are mine but have been made using equipment with very limited capability for capturing birds in flight (an Olympus e-m10 with 75-300mm II lens in 2015, and Panasonic FZ200 or FZ45 previously).  Although none of the flight images included is good technically, some are adequate to convey key aspects of Goshawks seen in field situations.