Dear All

Seeing the post from yesterday by James Felley noting a possible Goshawk in 
DC prompts me to report a bird I saw from the office (Connecticut & M in DC) 
on Monday which was almost certainly an immature Goshawk.  

I have been keeping one eye on the skies for good raptors for the last few 
weeks hoping - as one does - to pick up a Golden Eagle or somesuch goodie 
over DC.  On Monday morning I caught sight of a large raptor gliding straight 
towards the office at roof top level.  My first impression by eye was that it 
was a large, dark, long-winged and, bearing mind perspective, longish-tailed 
raptor; I really thought that it was an Aquila eagle.  I was able to get in the 
binocs a few seconds later and to my surprise I found myself looking at a large 
accipter with relatively pointed wings, bulging secondaries, a broad base to 
the tail and a longish head.  Unfortunately it came right over the office and 
was lost from view but a few seconds later.  It did definitely show a very dark 
belly as I lost sight of it overhead, before I could see anything further.  All the 
identification points fall towards Goshawk but I wouldn't call it without getting 
a better view.  

The final point was that it did appear to be moving at low level, rather like the 
semi-resident Cooper's Hawk that move in for the winter, and was not simply a 
bird moving through fast overhead.  It struck me that it might just hang about 
and hence my linking this to the bird seen yesterday.  It would be great if it 
did stick around for a while to get chance to nail the id and for more people to 
see it.

Cheers

Gary Allport