This morning I went to Manassas Battlefield National Park With Dave Sperling,
John Clark and Mary Ward-Jackson to do a little birding and take in the
bluebells along Bull Run. The bluebells were in full flower and near-peak, and
the best bird, by far, was an adult northern goshawk.
The goshawk was circling rather lower (100 to 200 feet) above the fields north
of Rte. 29 and west of Bull Run. I almost dismissed the bird as a Cooper's
hawk because, without binoculars, it appeared to be about the size of a large
female Cooper's and appeared rather long and lanky like Cooper's often do.
When the bird flapped, however, I noted that the wing beats were noticeably
deeper and slower than those of a Cooper's or sharp-shinned so I put my
binoculars on it for a closer look. Through my binoculars I could see the
solid gray back with slightly darker flight feathers, dark cap, white
supercilium, dark mask, light gray underparts and fluffy white undertail
coverts that seemed to wrap over the sides of the upper tail. We lost the bird
when it went into a stoop and flew into the trees to the southwest of the
field.
Other than the goshawk, birding was rather slow. Other good birds, though,
included my first broad-winged hawk, eastern kingbird, and barn swallows of the
year.
Good birding,
Craig Tumer
Washington, DC
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