Goshawks and Woodcock in a Woodland Outing, Guided Birdwatching

It has been a warm winter and numerous days have felt spring-like. A trip to the woods in early February was such a day, full of activity and birdsong.

From the off, ravens could be heard. They were somewhere behind the canopy of branches above us. Fortuitously one flew towards us and we watched as it flew just above the treetops in our vicinity. A chaffinch was singing, the first song from this species that I had heard this year. A favourite of many, a treecreeper, gave a brief view as it characteristically landed at the base of a large tree and worked its way up the ivy-covered trunk. 

There was much activity early on, song thrushes were singing, bullfinches were calling, and long-tailed, blue, great, marsh and coal tits were all seen. Then a star feature of the day occurred around 11 am. From a high vantage point we scanned for birds of prey: buzzards, a red kite, and many ravens (an honourary raptor if there is such a thing) all appeared. Then high above the ground a goshawk became evident, and then another.

These two hawks were a male and a female. They were drifting to and fro using a breeze to aid in their flight. At one stage the two of them were sharing airspace with one of the buzzards, a great comparison showing an obvious difference in structure between two species of large bird of prey. Things got more serious as one hawk gained speed and swooped down and up in a U shape above the trees. A short while later a similar action happened but this time the bird disappeared into the trees. This is part of the display behaviour and can typically only be witnessed in late winter or early spring.

Behind us a chunky bird flew rapidly from left to right fairly low towards some trees. It was a woodcock. A very unusual sighting during the day, I can only assume something had startled this individual. These are an incredibly well camouflaged and nocturnal species; hence you don’t see them too often!

The female goshawk emerged from her wooded sanctuary and gained height by circling up and up, she drifted westwards and was lost from sight. This wasn’t to be our final goshawk sighting however. A much closer individual appeared and flew low over the ground away and left from us, a truly impressive sight.

- Hugh Baggaley