Got to add goshawk to my list

Just back from a week of camping in the Allegheny National Forest at the Earth First! Round River Rendezvous. There was a pair of goshawks nesting in the forest and just so happened to be nearby to where we were camped (that area declared out of bounds).

While wildlife enthusiasts, few of these folks are birders so in spite of the fact I had tried to describe to some trying to draw one for a screen print, every time any raptor flew overhead people would shout out that they had seen one no matter how unlike an accipiter.

But finally I saw one and could point it out to folks. See the short, round tipped wings and long straight tail. We only have three species of accipiter so greatly different in size from each other that identification of goshawks is a snap. But I haven't spent enough time far enough north and here at the bottom edge of their breeding range they are rare. Just a few very widely spaced pairs. The Allegheny National forest is a pretty big place, bit over a half million acres.

That must have been really exciting, Mike