Sunday 15 August 2010

Goshawk

A superb walk yesterday but the highlight had to be seeing this beautiful hawk.

We heard a raptor species that was slightly different to us, several birds calling to one another, we presume a nest site was close. Then on a number of occasions one of the birds flew over the track way in the distance and we were pretty sure they were Goshawks.

The chance for a picture came when two birds flew over the top of the trees and above our heads for a short distance. These birds have regular slow wing beats followed by a glide where they do not loose height unlike a Sparrowhawk. They were flying low over the tree tops, calling to one another, as these birds are in the habit of.

I was chuffed to get the shots, you can always do better and I had difficulty locating in the view finder when directly overhead, and one or two were out of focus but these two are not too bad with a bit of sharpening.

I believe there was at least three Goshawks in this area because there was the two that flew over plus one calling to them, I suspect in this vicinity there was more than three. Excellent. 


5 comments:

Chris said...

Wow fantastic Mike, both for the species and for the flight shots! Gorgeous! I've never seen it and hope I will cross it road one day ;-)

Mike Randall Bird Photography said...

Thank you Chris, we are lucky to have a few of these birds in this area of Northern England.

Anonymous said...

Great shots and certainly a great find Mike.

Mary Howell Cromer said...

My green eyes just became even greener. How fortunate a day for you to get to not only view these beauties but your captures are wonderful as well. Great going, what a thrill this must have been for you~

Mike Randall Bird Photography said...

Thanks Roy, it was a delight to come accross these birds and then get a fly over.

Thanks Mary, I was pleased to get a couple of shots that are half decent.