[Bristol-Birds] Kretz photos Northern Goshawk in Russell County, VA
- From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:12:02 -0500
Richard Kretz was able to
take this identification photo
of a Northern Goshawk at
the Pinnacle Natural Area
Preserve along Big Cedar
Creek in Russell County, VA.
on 14 Feb 2010.
He has seen the bird on
two days but only once
close enough to get a photo.
The goshawk, in juvenile
plumage (first year), has
a distinct white stripe
(supercillium) over the
eye but this individual has
a short but obvious stripe.
A dark mustache (malar) mark behind and below the beak. A light
facial disk pattern helps frame a dark eye line through the eye and
behind it as a dark stripe. Note the dark streaks on the upper breast.
Since Kretz felt the bird was more Cooper's Hawk size than it was
a Red-tailed size, it may be a small, male, goshawk. A female
goshawk is quite large and a male goshawk smaller. A female
Cooper's is likewise the larger of the two sexes of that species.
He did not think it was a large, robust, Buteo-type body. But it is
more so than the two other Accipiters (Cooper's and Sharp-shinned
Hawk).
When he was able to photograph it, Kretz got just two exposures before
it flew. He said it was in an Osage Orange tree and flew down the
stream with choppy wing strokes and gave several call notes.
The location of this bird is north of Lebanon and south of the Clinch
River.
This is a rare fall transient along some of the Southern Appalachian
hawk migration lookouts -- mainly in October. It is also a rare
winter bird in the Upper Tennessee Watershed of both Southwest
Virginia and Northeast Tennessee. There are maybe 40 records
in our region with most in the Southern Blue Ridge and almost all
of those in the Unakas.
I was very fortunate to be in a Virginia Society
of Ornithology field party with Dr. Dick Peak and many others
near Massie Gap in the Grayson Highlands State Park when we
saw a single adult and a subadult soaring on 27 June 1992. Dr.
Fred Alsop has the only summer sighting for NET with a single bird
1 June 1991 at Roan Mountain. Dr. Lee R. Herndon and others
had an overwintering bird from near the first of October thru most of
April (1975-1976) at Roan Creek on Watauga Lake.
Let's go birding . . . .
Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN
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