Manassas Battlefield/Goshawk 18 APR 99.

BlkVulture@aol.com
Sun, 18 Apr 1999 19:23:07 EDT 

Hello all,

Today, Sunday, I met Sue Heath and Ellen O'Donohue at the Defunct Shopping 
Center section of the Battlefield.  We started around 7:00.  It was about 40 
or so, breezy, coming from the SW.  Sue and Ellen stayed until about 10:00, I 
stayed on counting hawks until about 1:30 when it began to drizzle.  The temp 
at Dulles when I left was 53.

The highlights were 2 Vesper Sparrows in the same spot Sue had them on 
Friday, 2 House Wrens, 2 Prairie Warblers, and the hawks.  

First, the Gos.  The bird was picked up low over trees about 200 yards SW of 
where we were standing.  My first, until I got bins on it, impression was a 
Nighthawk.  The upstroke of the wings was very high, and the bird was 
bouncing a bit.  Then the bird turned, and headed north, ripping across the 
field we were standing in, at about 100 feet.  It took a short time for it to 
cover the 400 yards of field before it reached the far woodline, and shot 
almost vertically up.  It paused, then dived into the woods.  

The most notable field mark was the white rump and undertail coverts.  I am 
always struck by how bold this is on Goshawks.  To me it looks like the bird 
was wrapped in roll gauze.  The wings were large, but proportionally short.  
The cap on the head was obvious, and there was also white on the head.  I did 
not see eye color.  The superciliary line did not look particularly bold.  
The bird was large.  And it flew like it saw a Ruffed Grouse.

There was a good Broad-winged flight as well.  I tallied over 100 birds 
between 9:00 and 1:30, with 30 minutes to hunt a cheeseburger in Manassas.  
There were nine species of raptor seen in that time, as well as two Stork sp. 
 Loons and Cormorants made a slight showing.  Many swallows that I could not 
identify.  

The List:

Common Loon (2)
DC Cormorant (4)
Great Blue Heron (3)
Canada Goose (15)
Wood Duck (3)
Black Vulture (1)
Turkey Vulture (25)
Osprey (7)
N. Harrier (3)
Sharp-shinned Hawk (5)
Cooper's Hawk (1)
Goshawk (1)
Red-shouldered Hawk (1)
Broad-winged Hawk (113)
Red-tailed Hawk (6)
American Kestrel (2)
Ring-billed Gull (100~) large kettle with a couple BW mixed in.
Rock Dove (2)
Mourning Dove (6)
Chimney Swift (2)
Red-bellied Woodpecker (4)
Downy Woodpecker (5)
N. Flicker (5)
Pileated Woodpecker (1)
E. Phoebe (2)
Purple Martin (1)
Tree Swallow (6)
N. Rough-winged Swallow (1)
Barn Swallow (3)
Blue Jay (10)
Am. Crow (12)
Fish Crow (1)
Carolina Chickadee (12)
Tufted Titmouse (8) 
Carolina Wren (1)
House Wren (2)
RC Kinglet (5)
BG Gnatcatcher (6)
Eastern Bluebird (12)
A. Robin (20)
N. Mockingbird (2)
Brown Thrasher (2)
Starling (15)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (12)
Prairie Warbler (2)
Palm Warbler (4)
N. Cardinal (4)
E. Towhee (6)
Field Sparrow (10)
Vesper Sparrow (2)
Song Sparrow (4)
White-throated Sparrow (3)
RW Blackbird (8)
Eastern Meadowlark (4)
Common Grackle (12)
BH Cowbird (12)
House Finch (1)
A. Goldfinch (21)

Todd Day
Jeffersonton, VA
BlkVulture@aol.com