ML561672071

Observation details

I set out for the first time this year on my yearly quest to locate Northern Goshawk nests. Last year I had located three nests within the town of Ripton, so I started my search by checking out the areas of those nests. Within five minutes of arriving at the first site, after making it some distance into the forest, I began to hear distant Goshawk calls. The calls became progressively louder, and the bird was headed right for me. The bird came into view at top speed on a direct trajectory for my head or lower. We looked each other in the eye momentarily, before I dropped to the ground in a very low crouch, holding my spotting scope above my head, and then felt the breeze of the bird pass just above. This can be terrifying, but I’ve learned to weather the storm, and I think I’m not even fazed by these birds anymore. Throughout this short visit, the bird dive-bombed me a couple more times, but largely perched quietly very close to me, letting out an occasional call. The bird was quite easy to observe, and even allowed me to walk directly underneath it, and I obtained some digiscope photos. For a number of reasons, I strongly suspected that this bird was a male. After the initial encounter, I walked in the direction from where the calls had initially come, and soon spotted a nest. From several angles, I could not see a bird sitting on the nest, but I could easily imagine that one might be hunkered down without being visible. On the other hand, the bird I observed may have indeed been a female that had come off the nest. There was a downy feather stuck to the outside of the nest, which is often a good cue to the active status of a nest. The bird I observed perched very close to the nest, and I assumed for the time being, given the observation of that bird, that this was the current and active nest. I very quickly surveyed a slightly larger area, and didn’t spot any other nests.