GOSHAWKS!!

I bought my dad a 10,000 Birds t-shirt last Christmas not realizing that it would turn out to be a priceless piece of magic. I bought him the t-shirt that has a Northern Goshawk on the front and a crazy picture on the back of a Goshawk taking a swipe at a deer. It says something prophetic like, “Go birding- you never know what might happen.” As if Goshawks really do attack deer or something. It’s a great t-shirt, but unfortunately I don't think the 10,000 Birds guys sell them anymore.

Today (Mother’s Day, 2008) I met up with my folks for a little spring birding in Connecticut at a great place called Bent of the River in Southbury. We had warblers on the brain, of course, because it’s early May and that’s what you look for at this time of year in the Northeast. We really weren’t having such a great day. We saw a few Ovenbirds, a pair of Louisiana Waterthrushes, we heard a Black-throated Green Warbler, saw a few Black and White Warblers, had a brief look at what might have been a Grey-cheeked Thrush, had great looks at a Worm-eating Warbler and we were waiting for the birding to improve.

After we walked through a gorgeous patch of forest, the trail meandered through a grassy open area that was filled to the brim with Prairie Warblers (which don’t actually live in prairies), Indigo Buntings, Blue-winged Warblers, and a few Baltimore Orioles and Field Sparrows sprinkled in for good measure. Nice birds for sure, but still kind of a slow day for warblers. We met up with a small group of birders having a similarly slow day and chatted briefly before going our separate ways on the trail. The sun had just managed to burn through the heavy fog that had covered the little river valley (where Bent of the River is located) and the temperature was starting to creep above 40 degrees F and we were optimistic that the warbler action would pick up.

I glanced up in time to catch a raptor flying overhead followed quickly by another. My initial thought was that they were perhaps a pair of Peregrine Falcons because I glimpsed what looked like a mask on one of their faces. They began climbing higher very quickly on the thermals that were being generated by the sudden sunshine so I couldn’t see their faces any more. After a bit more scrutiny, we had to rule out falcon because of wing shape and we decided they were accipiters, but they didn’t look small enough to be Sharp-shinned Hawks and the way they flapped their wings was too slow for Cooper’s Hawks. It’s difficult to judge size of soaring hawks, so it was certainly convenient that the two birds met up with a Red-shouldered Hawk riding their thermal, which gave us a great size comparison. These birds were about the same size as the Red-shouldered Hawk. Have you guessed yet that what we were seeing was a beautiful pair of Northern Goshawks? These were the second and third Northern Goshawks I’ve ever seen.

We noticed that the birds were both fairly light underneath, not cinnamon like a Cooper’s or a Sharp-shinned hawk. Also, they had the most peculiar fluffy undertail coverts that looked like bloomers fluttering around their legs. When we checked the field guide it mentioned this field mark as diagnostic of Goshawks and also pointed us to the noticeable bulging secondaries. After we clinched the ID, I sprinted off down the trail to find the other group of birders so they could see the birds. I didn’t find the birders but I continued to enjoy great looks at the birds. I called to my parents who were looking the other way, ”I can still see them if you want another look!” They turned and looked at me like I was crazy. “WE’RE looking at them over there, what are you talking about?” My dad walked over to where I was and looked at MY pair of Goshawks, turned to look at the OTHER pair that my mother was looking at and then looked at me in disbelief.

Those were my 4th and 5th Northern Goshawks of my life. Noone that I know of sees 4 Northern Goshawks in central Connecticut on Mother’s Day unless they are summoning the benevolent bird powers by wearing their 10,000 Birds Northern Goshawk t-shirt!

MORAL: Go birding – you never know what you might see. (And wear a 10,000 Birds t-shirt when you go!)