Pennington Flash was deserted this morning save a few hardy souls solemnly escorting their dogs around the park. Not surprising really, the weather was grim.I had hoped to catch of glimpse of the Slavonian Grebe that had been hanging around recently, but after a good search across the water nothing was doing – it must have slunk off to Ljubljana.
A flock of lapwing then suddenly took to the air – scared of their own reflection these birds – but just as I thought it had been yet another false alarm, I caught a glimpse of a large brown raptor disappearing into the trees to the right of Horrocks hide.
Initially, I assumed it must have been a young Sparrowhawk, and I thought nothing of it. Ten minutes later, the Peewits panicked again and I this time I could see why – a large bird of prey was flying towards me head-on. The first thing that struck me about the bird was how muscular it looked around the chest area.
Luckily it landed on the spit about twenty yards from the hide. Focusing on the bird, my jaw almost hit the floor – it was a Goshawk! Its large size, brown plumage and powerful build suggested a young female.
Regaining my composure, I began telling myself that it must be a young female Sparrowhawk, but the massive size and piercing orange eye meant that it must have been a Goshawk.
Having only seen these impressive hawks displaying at distance over Cloclaenog forest it was a real privilege to see one so close – especially in such an unlikely location. Unfortunately, after about half a minute the bird took to flight and headed west across the flash.
It was at this point that doubts began to creep in as I remember having read somewhere that when gliding Goshawks don’t lose altitude like Sparrowhawks, and this bird appeared to drop slightly when coasting. Then again, thinking about it now, this appears to be contrary to the laws of Physics!! – and having seen the bird up close I have very few doubts.
The raptor action didn’t stop there either. I popped down to Parkgate on the way home and bagged my first ‘grey’ male Hen Harrier this autumn. Plenty of other action too:
Parkgate 10.11.09
3 Hen Harrier (1 sub-adult ‘grey’ male, plus 2 adult females)
3 Short-eared Owl
2 Barn Owl
Until later.
2 comments:
Keep telling you these birds never read the books written about them.
john boz
I reckon you're right JB - I once saw a Snow Bunting perched in a tree. He must have lost his Collins!
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