Gosh-hawk

As a birder, the worst thing you can be is unable to bird. And as such had I been. A fratured wrist had augmented a plethora of further factors that had inhibited my fundamental desire to bird (as it were).

From this position, there are very few things that can lift you out the induced state of depressed drifting. Very few, not none. One of these, is a patch tick. However, it can go beyond this. A patch tick is a patch tick but there are some birds which just make you watch in wonder. Some birds don't seem like anything other than divine incarnations (maybe not); and remind you why it was you enjoy birding so much. This is what birding's about, the majesty of them and the abiity of some to cause great positive emotion.

And so it was, that October the 2nd occurred. Aaron had called me at about midday to let me know that Crossbills had been reported by Boldermere. He picked me up and we headed up there straightaway. However, it turned out that the birds hadn't been within the patch boundary (albeit visible from) but the disappointment still flourished. Crossbill is a strange one for me. It seems like a reasonably easy patch tick as WALBOC is surrounded by suitable habo and there aren't exactly rare, next summer I'll try and put in the necessary effort to pick them up. On the way up Aaron told me that there had been a Grey Partridge on the Airfield early morning. This is the second of the year after a bird was picked up back in February by RSPB representatives who also picked up Mealy Redpoll on the same visit (I was at school typically).

I was heading back, feeling better for what had been my first patch visit in weeks. I walked along the footpath that straddles western end of the Cricket Pitch to the sight of nothing. I walked along, checking the Cattle for anything (yes, still annoyed about that). I arrived at the eastern end and scanned the tree-front (there is a small 'glade' here where Firecrest have been seen previously and Little Owl are common) where I was rewarded with Goldcreest and Treecreeper. I was just about to cut through the woods and go home...when I looked up.

Two Crows flapped lazily south. A Buzzard was drifting high overhead and far to the east. Two male Sparrowhawks wheeled in the air at a good height. I raised my bins to check that one of the Sparrowhawks wasn't in fact Britain's first Shikra (yes, I know) when something else caught my eye.

A large raptor appeared as if from nowhere. It looked like a Sparrowhawk, but the thing was, it was huge. It continued to glide towards me, quite low down. At this point, I was very confused. For a moment, it didn't really look like anything I knew to me. Then it twigged, this had to be a Goshawk. First thing's first I thought, photo. I raised my camera. At this point the bird was still quite distant, I found it in the viewfinder...nothing. I was so pissed off by that. Not the first time its happened. However, I had no time to be frustrated, I had to get as much on this bird as I possibly could. As I said, the most dtriking feature of this bird was it's size, it was enormous, buzzard-sized, far bigger than I'd anticipated. This set it out as a fem. I made notes on everything I could make out as soon as I could (almost instantly). The bird had clear white, undertail coverts with a barred tail. The bird's breast and coverts had much finer barring. I could make out a very protruding head and a dark crown. The bird passed overhead and continued west still gliding. I thought this was quite odd as it had been gliding for some time, longer than I thought they were capable of doing (although apparently some birds can glide for up to 500m). It then started flapping its wings with quite fast, deep wing-beats. As the bird passed further away, I was able to see more and more of its upperparts which were grey-brown (although more towards the grey side of the spectrum). The bird continued west out of sight.

Wow. I was exhilerated and quickly noted down what I'd made out on the bird. I was so annoyed with my camera that seem snow to have inherent issues and regularly fails on me. I have checked the batteries for historesis (by replacing them) but this doesn't seem to be the problem. I need a new one, end of.

It was a magnificent sighting that made my day.

My yearlist and patchlist do not increase however, as I recently realised I had yet to remove Lady Amherst's Pheasant from my list.

WALBOC Patchlist: 106
WALBOC Yearlist: 104

PS. The title? Poor at best, abysmal at worst.

Final update soon