Final ID- Brown Goshawk versus sparrowhawk

["Belinda Cassidy" <>]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for following this thread, and trying to help me ID this large,
beautiful, timid hawk that I keep seeing & hearing each day. After chasing
the poor thing around for weeks, and strongly suspecting she's a Brown
Goshawk, I now think that she's the Male sparrowhawk's mate, and that she's
a Sparrowhawk, not a Goshawk (although she looks like one). I also think
juvenile that was with them is also their baby.

I've followed some advice and put all the pictures in one place on the web:

http://www.choond.com/hawks/

I will welcome any comments.

Today I captured some more pictures of her. In one picture, she looks almost
identical to how she looked yesterday- ie almsot identical toa Goshawk. But
in another her toe is shown side-on and it appears (to me) that it is a fair
bit longer than her other toes. And in another, she looks relaxed and at
ease, sitting in the saem tree where I have photgraphed the male
sparrowhawk.

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj144/Serenity-photos/2008-HAWK-ROOSTING.jpg

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj144/Serenity-photos/sitting.jpg

http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj144/Serenity-photos/2008-HAWK-FOOT.jpg

I have thought a lot about the possibility of there being two pair of
raptors sharing the same territory and habits.  I'd love it if this were
true, but with all the time we spend photographing birds, we'd have seen
them, and noticed that the Goshawk female was so much bigger. And you'd
think they'd fight some of the time.

Many thanks again for helping me.

Cheers,
Belinda
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