You’ve seen goshawks

You’ve seen goshawks; Your friends have seen goshawks; Your neighbors have seen goshawks! And I will say it over and over again.

Do not misunderstand; I am not saying that you have misidentified NG. It is simply that you haven’t made an attempt to identify a raptor in flight. And this will lead into another post; Don’t cop out on me— Don’t cop out on yourself. Nearly every one of my posts will lead into another one or more of my postings. So far, right now, this post relates to my number one rule. That is — I will never say you misidentified a bird, unless I am there with you in the field, and we are both onto the same bird.

I was with my neighbor on his property, which is just behind my house, when he calls “look.” There was a NG circling. And this has happened more than once, with my sharp-eyed neighbor-friend. He should be sharp-eyed as he is a tug boat captain. I went walking to an acquaintance’s house which was a half- mile away. He was outside working on his house. I called, “look” as a NG was circling. It was around Christmas 2016 when I was talking  with my neighbor across the street. We were standing on his front yard when he called, “look.” There was a mature female NG circling low over my house. Then fifteen-seconds later, I brought to his attention, another female NG over my house, at the same altitude, and the same flight direction as the first NG. You’ve seen goshawks; Your friends have seen goshawks; Your neighbors have seen goshawks!

Recently, in winter 2017-18, I went down my steep road, and there was my friend in his yard. Mike is a hunter, trapper, machinist, who assembles his own rifles and hunts big game in many areas of British Columbia and Alaska. To our front was a raptor ripping through, low over the near-by roof top. Mike asked— what kind of bird was that! I replied— a northern goshawk, mature. “ Did you see the silver and white coming off that bird.” I quickly departed the area, as I had my camera, and went to chase.