O.k., Mike, I'll bite.  What is a whistle pig?

The only N. Goshawk I've seen in MO was first sitting atop the privy  
at Eagle Bluffs CA, Boone Co.  The tail pattern and the size were  
clinchers.  I watched it take off and begin circling for a thermal.   
I got other birders there, but the bird was fast going up, up and away.

The most exciting view I've had of one was from a moving van in  
Colorado (Mike Flieg's Lek a day trip).  That was the fastest I've  
ever seen two full vans emptied out!  Everyone got a decent look.

Edge Wade
Columbia, MO
[log in to unmask]

On Oct 11, 2006, at 3:17 PM, Mike Brady wrote:

> Am always really amazed at the number of  goshawk sightings that  
> seem to take
> place in MO every fall and  winter.Always wonder about many of  
> them.Im not
> saying these birds dont show up  here,I know several very credible  
> birders who
> have seen them here and dont  doubt their observations one bit but  
> have to say
> many MO goshawk  sightings could be and probably are something
> else,ecspecially when it  comes to juvenile birds
>
>   Having  lived and worked for long  time in an area with some of  
> the highest
> pop numbers of goshawks  and best gos habitat in North America  
> (White River
> Natl Forest  region along the central western slope of Colorado) I  
> can  say
> that at best these birds  were rare.Even under ideal conditions in   
> ideal habitat
> I always considered myself VERY lucky to see one.This is  coming  
> from someone
> who was out almost everyday of the year in primo gos  habitat( it  
> was a heck
> of alot easier finding boreal and n-pygmy owls,other  pretty scarce mt
> birds,than it was seeing a  goshawk)
>
>   Think many Missouri goshawk sightings are miss  id'd cooper hawks  
> or some
> other hawk such as a young red-shoulder,etc.Can  say from my  
> experience here
> that every "goshawk" I have found out about and gone  to look for  
> has turned out
> to be something else..Its an easy miss ID'd  bird
>   The birds that show in in MO are more than likely from Canadian or
> northern border state pops so have to wonder if there is any news  
> of a  "food crash"
> up there.They are an  irruptive species but even these  cycles are
> uncommon.Think its very roughly 10-15 year cycles.Not nearly as   
> common as say snowy
> owls(In Colorado goshawk irruptions were  elevational)
>   Although goshawks are accipters they tend to take prey much  
> bigger  than a
> coopers or sharpie.In Colorado their prey of choice seemed to be  
> snowshoe
> hares,pineys(red squirrels),ermines and even birds as big as  adult  
> blue  grouse
> and whistle pigs.Goshawks are big birds.More buteo like than  
> accipter  like
> and birds of  very large tracs of continous forest
>  Anyway can say I will be very stoked the day I see a genuine n-   
> goshawk in
> Missouri
> -Mike Brady
>
>
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