Liam and I were out early this morning, letting mom sleep in on her special day. We drove upslope beyond the Butte Meadows area of Butte County until snow blocked the road a mile or so above Jonesville. The area was exceptionally birdy with numerous singing hermit warblers, fox sparrows, evening grosbeaks, Townsend's solitaires, Hammond's flycatchers, white-headed woodpeckers and a possible pileated woodpecker. Mountain quail, the most secretive of the quail clan, were both heard and seen.
About a mile back downslope at the Jonesville Snowmobile Park we had a calling northern goshawk flying overhead for an extended look. My 'hip-shot' call was peregrine falcon - Liam gently corrected me and we were able to check out various fieldmarks of this magnificent predator.
If there is an avian ‘king’ (or queen) of the north American woods it is surely our northern goshawk. Known for their ferocity, especially when defending their nest, these brawny accipiters are named for their ability to bring down prey as large as a goose – the ‘gos’ in goshawk. Goshawks dominate the air-space of forests in north America, Europe and Asia, and have been prized for centuries by falconers who hunt them “off the fist”. While they are normally stealthy and reclusive, we were fortunate see ours during spring nesting season when they are busy building nests, feeding young and vocalizing loudly. By the size of this individual our guess was that this was the larger and heavier female.
While one mom had a rare chance to sleep-in, this mom was likely out hunting up food for some hungry nestlings.
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