ML107590111

Age and sex

Adult Female - X

Media notes

Note the coarser barring below, which per Sibley, is indicative of the female (which is larger than the male).

Observation details

When I first arrived at this location, I didn't hear or see much bird activity. About 10 minutes after scouting around the area and not seeing or hearing anything, I finally began hearing the 'begging' calls of recently fledged juvenile Northern Goshawk (NOGO) some 150 - 200 yards from me. I just stood there transfixed and listened to their calls for a couple of minutes, trying to figure out the best way to get closer to the area they were calling from. It was interesting, as they were calling from different directions. They were well hidden in a stand of larger Ponderosa Pine and Douglas Fir (mixed). I began making my way slowly and cautiously in the direction of the 'begging' calls (I could not see any of the juveniles). As I was making my way closer (remaining alert for an upset adult bird), the adult female suddenly appeared out of nowhere and made a low level, high speed pass right over the top of my head (missing my head by only 5 or 6 feet), screeching with her loud alarm call ('kye, kye, kye') as she flew over me and landed on a tree branch some 60 or 70 feet away. She gave a few more alarm calls as I stood motionless, then calmed down and went quiet, at which time I snapped several photos. She then gave another series of scolding calls, then was quiet again. Light was terrible for photos, as I was looking right into the sun, so I slowly and cautiously began moving to a different spot where the lighting was better. As I began to move, the adult female left her perch and repeated one more low level pass over my head (similar to the first one), then perched on a limb of a different tree. As soon as she perched on the limb, I took several more photos, then decided it was best to leave the area to keep the human impact on these rare birds to the absolute minimum. I did not make any further attempt to locate any of the juveniles. I did not actually see any of the juveniles and did not see the adult male. Possibly he was out hunting during the 5 to 10 minutes (max) that I was in the area. "Life" bird for me.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 60D

ISO

1600

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/6.3

Shutter speed

1/200 sec

Dimensions

3783 pixels x 2576 pixels

Original file size

3.66 MB