About that gos...

Last week, I posted a link to my other blog where I discussed a lightly marked Goshawk. It looked kinda like a gos in coop's clothing - the unmarked undertail coverts and the lightly streaked body are unusual for Goshawk and really more suggestive of a Cooper's Hawk. However, everything else clearly pointed in the way of Goshawk. I guess I tried to make it more of an ID challenge than it really was. All reactions I got agreed with that Northern Goshawk ID.

Here she is again - for it is indeed a she - with her mate! Our lightly marked immature gos appears to have hooked up with an adult male. I actually saw both birds flying more or less together last week, but not quite as a close as we see them here. In the top photo, the male appears to be leading his lady.

Here is another - vague, distant - shot of our two lovebirds, now with the male chasing the female, while she turns her head to make sure she is indeed being pursued.

As expected, hawk migration today remained fairly slow around here. It was a little warmer than yesterday, but still quite windy. Sixteen migrants showed up, including two Golden Eagles, a Northern Harrier, the third Turkey Vulture of the season, also the third roughleg of the season, an adult Cooper's Hawk, and a Merlin.

So far this season, numbers disappoint, but let me ask you this: at which other spring hawk watch do Golden Eagles outnumber Turkey Vultures ten to one?