More tactics

Here might be the best location to observe NG in Williamsport, Pa., in the suburbs in Faxon. Location: Short Park, Northway Road. This thin recreational park is in the gap of the Grampian Hills. It is a narrow gap with a small stream tucked into the base of hill.

Goshawks and Cooper’s and other raptors like to shoot the gap, from ridge line to ridge line or hill top to hill top. The tactic is for you to get into the gap and then the hawk will traverse across your line of fire. It is best in the beginning, to post up on one end of the gap. Because if you are in the middle of the gap the hawk can easily slip behind your position. It only take a few flaps and some glides to traverse this gap, possibly ten seconds. I suggest you post near the swimming pool and concentrate looking northward. About ten-percent of the time scan toward your rear, toward the dike. The raptor might set a flight pattern, couple that with the time frame and you might get close enough to get a good photograph and a better look at field marks.

A good time to observe might be one- half hour after sun-up. Or from 11-1. Or as the temps warm, 10- 3.

I am getting ahead of myself. But, here is another area (gap) to shoot. It is a wide gap. It is in San Diego. The gap between the hillsides west of the Clairemont Hills and the Clairemont Hills. It is a long gap. You can post on either end. In the bottom of the gap is The 5.

While I was observing Goshawks in S.D., I contacted a falconer I recently met in Kansas. I told of my sightings. His reply “What!? Is there winter conditions down there in San Diego?”

The thought: What would Seagull Steve Think?