Red goshawks

My definition of a red goshawk is one that has a chest, belly, and under wing coverts of red, or red orange. If you think accipiter identification was difficult before— now it is even more difficult. I have observed NG with red on the chest and I call these raptors NG with a red chest.
Here are most of my sightings. All sightings were of raptors in flight. At Costco in Tucson, on Grant, female. There were many sightings of male and female, and sightings were over a period of five years. Was it the same birds, no. How many actual red NG were there? I do not know. In Goodyear— one male.
In Anacortes,WA, many sightings of male, and female over a period of about five years.

In Texas— Rockport, winter 2002-03. Three or four sightings of female, one sighting on the Christmas bird count. One sighting in Bacliff, a female. At Berry Springs Preserve in Georgetown, one female.
Now for some details of Rockport. I was staying at Lagoon’s RV Park, very near the huge Baptist Church. It was in the parking lot when I happened to meet aquatic biologist Wilson J Tarkington, who happened to live just across the street. Jay was starting to learn raptor identification. He did have a good understanding of Peregrine Falcons and Red- shouldered hawks.

At another point in time, I was hawking in and around Wall-Mart and I bumped into Jay as he was leaving the store, as he had been placing educational posters in the store. I asked him if he would care to do some hawking. We were now standing on the front side of the building on the long area of grass. The side of the building was bright white, with sunlight reflecting off the white, cement brick wall. A large raptor smashed into the very top of the wall as if to pin prey. We saw no feathers fly. The hawk pushed of the wall with its wings and legs, and did not appear to be injured, as it turned and flew in the direction it had come. The hawk was an NG and female and clearly showed red vermiculation on chest and belly.
Then we went to a small pond very near my RV park. There was a perched raptor that went down into the brambles. We waited out the hawk. About ten minutes later the hawk lifted and flew directly over the RV park, probably over my rig. At first I thought the hawk was Cooper’s. However five minutes later, I realized it was a female NG. We went to my rig to have a snack. As Jay was leaving to walk home, he pointed into the sky. There was a female NG at about one- hundred or more feet altitude. Then at 4 pm., over a recreational field near the RV park, was a female NG traveling through.

In Kemah, l observed male and female NG. There may be four female NG in Kemah. I did have a sighting of a female with a red chest.

Also, while in Tucson, I contacted, Michael Ingraldi, reasearch biologist, Ph.D. Michael told me he was at an NG nest in Heber, AZ. There he observed an NG with a red chest and belly. This hawk could not be trapped!


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