[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Goshawk? and Crossbills



I just got back from another one of my dashes up to the mountains half an
hour ago, and am bursting with questions. I was supposed to be at a
retreat up in little Switzerland, but the retreat took the form of brisk
birding as I was determined to get the Red Crossbills for my N Carolina
list. So up I went to Mt Mitchell yesterday morning (june 27th) and within
a minute of walking out of the car at the visitor Center at Mt Mitchell I
had a flock of some twenty Crossbills mixed in with Pine Siskins. They sat
atop the young (and mostly dying) spruces, and kept on descending ot the
ground to pick up grit from the gravel road. They seemed to really prefer
one naked, wet spot right outside the balcony of the visitor center which
puzzles me since the spot did not have any grit or gravel, it was smooth,
wet earth. Can anyone elnighten me as to why siskins and crossbills should
be eating earth? Do birds need salt as mammals do?

There was a scarlet tanager and a family of black throated greens feeding
the almost fully grown babies at Rough Ridge Junction overlook, and a walk
on the Commissary Shelter Road down from the visitor center revealed a
bold, singing Winter Wren, lots of breeding DE Juncos, GC Kinglets, more
BT Greens, Catbirds, Cedar Waxwings, about a million Indigo Buntings,
Ravens, Turkey Vultures, and some distantly singing Veeries.

GOSHAWK?: 
About half a mile down the Commissary Shelter Road where a montane meadow
appears on the left side of the Road I flushed a huge accipiter from the
conifers. My first thought on flushing it was "accipiter" and second was
"gosh that is huge". I know that size can be deceptive, and especially so
when combined with wistfulness. But all I can say is that I have seen lots
of accipiters and they never make me trip over myself as this one did. Not
only was it big, its body was stockier than any Coopers hawk I have ever
seen, and it sflight seemed to be more powerful. Other than this I saw the
banding on the tail clearly, but try as I would I could not get a
satisfactory look at he belly or at the eye-brow since the bird was flying
away from me, and the day was overcast. The bird soared over the raod
ahead of me and then went straight towards the summit where I lost it once
it was no longer etched against the sky. 
So my question to you all is this: What would you do with a sighting like
this and if you had seen plenty of Cooper's hawks in your life? I hear and
read that with the regrwth of the conifers after the logging of the turn
of the century the Goshawks are expanding their range southward; none of
the local rangers seemed to know much and were only too happy to accept a
Goshawk verdict and add the species to the park list. But I advised them
against doing that since I cannot be totally sure. DOES ANYONE ON THIS
LIST HAVE ANY EXPERIENCE WITH GOSHAWKS?

The other noteworthy bird was a single Great Blue Heron winging its way
over the road and over the summit. This too is not on the MT Mitchell Bird
list, and of this I was absolutely sure.

ANd finally there was a couple of turkeys with six chicks feeding on the
parkway.

Please le tme know your sense of the accipiter, folks.

Shantanu Phukan

*****************************************************
SHANTANU PHUKAN
Lecturer in Urdu-Hindi & Indian Literature
University of N. Carolina, Chapel Hill
Curriculum in Asian Studies
Alumni Hall 413C
Chapel Hill, N.C. 27599

phukan@email.unc.edu
919-962-6825
*****************************************************