Today was an exceptional day. This was the last official day for the Mendota Hawk Watch for 2009. It was an exceptional year. At about 4:30 Bill Grigsby and I saw a larger raptor coming towards us down the ridge from the NE. It was doing the flap, flap, flap glide flight of an accipter. It was near a Broad-winged Hawk and it was considerably larger. It went by us at tree top level but out over the valley. I looked for the eyestripe but it was faint. It was a heavy bodied bird with a long tail but not the narrow tail of a Coopers. The wings were flat and narrow on the end with the underside a light color. The chest had stripes but wasn"t white like a Coopers. As I watched it go downridge it passed close to another Broadwing and it was larger than the Broadwing. I looked at the field guide Bill had and I looked at several reference books at home and all of the field marks I saw indicate an immature Northern Goshawk. I also looked at the historic data from other hawk watches and they have all reported Northern Goshawks but most were about 2 weeks later than today. I will have a final report in the next few days. Hawkwatchers: Laverne Hunter, Bill Grigsby Today Year to date Bald Eagle 1 28 Merlin 1 9 Sharp-shinned Hawk. 11 63 Broad-winged Hawk 147 7902 Coopers Hawk 2 37 Osprey 1 44 American Kestrel 0 15 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 5 Northern Harrier 2 5 Peregrine Falcon 1 11 Golden Eagle 0 1 Northern Goshawk 1 1 Unidentified Eagle 0 2 Tom Tom & Laverne Hunter Russell County Bird Club Lebanon, VA