Hi Tweets,

Yvonne writes:

>(snip) when we saw the Goshawk? and for sure it
>was not a Peregrine.

Many Northern Goshawks in full soar will suggest not the other accipiters
but either a long-tailed buzzard such as a Red-tail but with a
longer-than-usual tail, or Gyrfalcon. If your bird had you thinking Red-tail
before accipiter, or if the bird resembled a Gyr in full soar with
slightly-more rounded primaries more than the 'typical' accipiter form, then
there's a good chance of it being a Gos. If you thought 'definite accipiter'
from the git-go, then there's a good chance that, given its size, it was a
hen Cooper's.

>It was definitely an accipter and it was very
>large.

Compared to...? If you can say *with certainty* the bird was about Red-tail
sized, I'd think Gos before Cooper's. Without a size reference, it becomes
iffy--.

>It was quite high and soaring away from us and so the look we
>got was not quite satisfactory but the bird was definitely barred
>underneath, not streaked and it was gray with no rufous.

The rufous barring on adult Sharpies and Coops isn't visible at all angles,
in all lights. It tends to look greyer with distance as the rufous
barring--not glaringly consicuous at the best of times; it's not a color
with that travels far--merges with the white ground (or is a rufous ground
with white barring? '-)

>A Goshawk
>would be a life bird for me and I am always reluctant to list a lifer
>without positive ID and so I will have to wait for another day to mark
>this species off my list. But still the feelings I have are that this is
>not a bird I've seen before and that there was definitely something
>different about it from any Cooper's Hawk I've ever seen. Its one I
>would like to see again to confirm my ID.

Under the circumstances I'd support the decision to wait for a more
definitive view. Can't help feeling that because there's a question of its
ID, it likely wasn't a Gos. A hen Cooper's may suggest Northern Goshawk, but
sure not the other way around. General experience is that when one finally
does see a Gos, there is no question: one knows it instantly for what it is.

Michael Price The Sleep of Reason Gives Birth to Monsters
Vancouver BC Canada -Goya
mprice at mindlink.net