Goshawk 1 (S)

Goshawk  Accipiter gentilis

 Forest of Dean, UK.

It's long been an ambition of mine to photograph wild goshawks.   Earlier in 2011 I was granted a licence by Natural England to photograph goshawk at or near the nest here in the Forest of Dean.   I had already photographed a few fledged birds in 2010, but I really wanted to record adults on the nest with chicks, or just adults perching close to the nest.  My first ever photo of a goshawk (above) was during my first year here in the Forest (2004), a chance encounter of a male perched watching me.  I was told by a local he often perches there, and so I thought this was one bird that was going to be quite easy.

Goshawk 05 juv

How wrong I was, and many years later and many fruitless hours spent in a hide, I had only achieved photos of juveniles soon after fledging (2010).  Although I had seen the adults on a few occasions, I was never lucky enough to have them land in front of the lens in a convenient spot - always with branches in the way or too high up in the canopy.

Goshawk 12 juv

This truly is a top predator of woodland with superb hunting skills.  They favour medium sized birds such as pigeon, duck and pheasant as well as squirrels.  These photos are truly wild birds high in the tree tops in the Forest of Dean.  I am lucky living here, as the Forest is perhaps one of the best places in the UK to see a goshawk, home to approximately 23 breeding pairs in an area 10 x 10 kilometres.

Goshawk 06 juv

Goshawk 13

With permission from the Forestry Commission, I put up my hide in 2011 for 2 weeks - and approximately 50 metres from a nest.  Finding the nest of a goshawk is a challenge in itself, and even when located it is often not good for photography due to either being obscured by trees, a bright sky background or a dark and gloomy environment.  Out of about 12 nests that I know about the one I choose turned out to be not as good as I had hoped for - but probably better than most nevertheless.

Goshawk 45c (crop)

Given optimal light and activity (and goshawk chicks do nothing for hours on end!) I got a few worthwhile images (above and below).  The image below is interesting because ot shows the difference in development of the male (large brown) and female (fluffy white) chick.  Males always outcompete the females for food from the adult and fledge first.  This male occasionally returned to the nest for a feed from mum or dad who is obviously overhead when I took the shot.

Goshawk 52

Below is a large crop of the male - don;t he look dopey?  I reckon he has his eye on me.

Goshawk 54 (large crop)

I also contacted the local raptor researcher who kindly invited me along a to a couple of ringing sessions so I could get great close ups of the chicks, albeit on the ground.

Goshawk 46

Goshawk 22

 By late summer all of the nests were empty and I was left frustrated without any good shots of the adults.  Soon afterwards I was talking to my friend and fellow professional photographer Paul Miguel about his raptor workshops, and he invited me to photograph a goshawk with him.   Given my disappointments with wild adult birds, and the growing number of photographers using tame birds, I decided to give it a go and cheat.  Welcome to the easy side of wildlife photography.....

Goshawk 52

An easy portrait with jessies hidden

Sadly, it turned out to be a very dull day and as I was only interested in natural looking shots (as well as full frame with minimal need for cloning) it meant taking the bird inside a mixed conifer-deciduous woodland.   I knew the challenge was on in these conditions, which somehow made up for the cheating. The choice to use shady woodland meant very low-light level photography and a lot of patuience .  I knew that shot after shot would probably be blurred, but that is exactly how the real thing is and what I needed to practice if ever I was lucky enough to have a goshawk adult in front of the lens.  What I hadn't expected was how the bird in question was a feisty year old male who wasn't well habituated to photographers, on top of which he was hungry and forever moving about in search of prey or the hand-out from his owner! 

Goshawk 57

A great Autumnal image, and what amazing eyes these birds have.  Jessies hidden under feathers this time.

I had seen wild ones flying through the trees by the nest and this experience proved invaluable in envisaging the "set-up" I wanted. The only problem was the sheer speed of this keen and hungry bird.  Lightning speed from the "off" tested me and my trusty Canon 5dmk2 to its limit - in fact well beyond it's limit - this camera is not so good at tracking birds even in good light.  Manual focus and skill was all that was left....

Goshawk 61

Goshawk 5266 (crop)

Goshawk 63 (crop)

Goshawk 64

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