I'm more than 90% sure I had a Northern Goshawk in my yard an hour or so ago. My brother, who was in the kitchen and grabbed the binoculars, called out "Cooper's Hawk on the beam". I immediately looked out the bedroom window and saw it on the cedar beam where several of my feeders sit or hang. Right away I thought "or maybe, Goshawk?", and tried to see head markings as best I could (no binocs in that room, grrr). I saw it perched for only a few seconds, before it flew, past the window but angling away a little bit. I just could not see the head well, but I did get a look at a grey breast. My brother is a somewhat new birder, less enthusiastic about it, but knowing how much I enjoy them, he does his best to help. Cooper's Hawk is the only one within his experience, but when I showed him the picture in the NGS, he said, "No, it looked much more like that one; I saw a grey front, and it just looked bigger". I called Steve Weston, and he asked me some questions, breast color, but also, "Did it look thinner or stockier like a red-tailed", to which my answer was the latter, and my brother concurred. I also note that a Goshawk is not unprecedented in the yard - many years ago, I got great looks with binoculars at one which cooperatively perched for several minutes and was able to confirm the black and white markings on the head. So I'm confident enough to report it. If anyone can shed any more light on any distinguishing marks I can try to remember or to look for if it shows up again, I welcome them eagerly.
Erika Sitz ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
