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
