[obol] Unusual Goshawk Behavior

[Marilyn Miller]

Thursday afternoon I was doing the dishes looking out the window into my
fenced backyard.  I have a large fenced yard inside of my ten acres east of
Bend.  My backyard is half planted grass and half native plants.
(Sagebrush, rabbitbrush, Juniper trees, native bunch grasses etc.)

I noticed my two geese, especially my male goose; Fuzzy-Bird was really
agitated.  Then I saw an adult Northern Goshawk walking up to Fuzzy and
Affie-Goose.  (Affie is a female small goose and Fuzzy is quite large).
Fuzzy never let the Goshawk get near Affie-Goose. The Goshawk walked up to
the geese, looked in or near the goose dishes full of grain then walked 20
feet across the grass, walked past some sage brush behind my garden and
disappeared.

I went outside to see if maybe the Goshawk was injured and looked all over
the yard and the Goshawk was gone.

I didn't have very many birds in my yard that day and haven't seen any
California quail in my yard for almost three months, just Juncos, House
Finches, etc.

Has anyone else ever seen a Goshawk walk up to two geese and then walk away
across a yard?  The Goshawk was not hopping but looked like it was walking.
Very exciting and very strange!


Marilyn Miller
Bend, Oregon 
goosemiller at msn.com