FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] Large Accipiter at Oak Hill Cemetery

["Rick Phillips" <sunfish0501@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Around 11:00 am this morning (Feb 14) I made a loop through Oak Hill Cemetery 
here in Kingsport to see if perhaps a Merlin had wandered in as one did this 
time of year in 2004.  As I pulled up into the area where the Merlin was in 
2004 I noticed a raptor circling high overhead in a thermal.  My first reaction 
was that it was a juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk.  A rich, buff color underneath; 
a broad body and tail slightly long for a buteo...a looking a bit like a large 
accipiter.  I jumped out of the car to get my binocs on the bird.  He was very 
high and far away, but in pretty good light.  The two characteristics that 
stood out to me immediately the most were the bulky body; huge, puffy white 
undertail coverts; and a broad, slightly elongated tail.  I tried hard, but 
just could not see an eye stripe...it was just too far away...but it had a 
large head that did not stick out too far in front of the wings.  I had decided 
one thing for certain at this point...it was NOT a Red-shouldered Hawk.  I kept 
watching as it circled higher and higher.  After a couple of minutes...it 
descended over the top of a hill to the north.  I drove out of the cemetery and 
tried to get over to where I thought the bird might be headed, but I did not 
see it again.  
If someone held me down and tortured me and forced me to make a  call on this 
bird...if Wallace Coffey took me over to the Mad Greek and ordered a large 
supreme pizza and sat there in front of me while I was starving to death 
watching him pig out and told me he would give me a slice if I would only call 
an id on this bird...I would say it was an immature Goshawk.  I've had this 
same problem of seeing a large accipiter and getting pretty good looks, but 
just not enough to be able to absolutely say Cooper's or Goshawk a couple of 
times during my birding lifetime.  I have in my notes that Rick Knight, Tom 
Laughlin, and myself (I remember it well) stood at Carver's Gap  on September 
1, 1996,  and watched a large acciptier fly by with a smaller Broad-winged Hawk 
diving on it and still couldn't call it for sure, although it almost certainly 
could not be anything else.  The bird didn't look like he was leaving the area 
when he flew over the hill so I'll go back and check again after lunch before I 
go to work.

Rick

Rick Phillips
Kingsport, Tennessee