I have been very lucky to have spent time , through birding, with fantastic folk who I may have never normally got to know well. Back in the early noughties I lived, between travels, in the far North of Scotland and surveyed Eagles and wild Geese. A month was spent walking the coastline of the Uists. I joined a young man who had been based up there for more than long enough already, Dan Haywood. Following a 10 hour drive I arrived at the rental house, the sea audible, to be greeted by a tall man topped by a huge fur hat obscuring most of his head, quite an impression. Over the next 6 months our lives were entwined as we lived and worked together across the flows, moors, mountains and beaches of Caithness, Sutherland and the Outer Hebrides. Fantastical company, Dan took the ordinary and made it extra-ordinary through his psychedelic narrative of our adventures, fully populated by a suite of hysterically well observed characters. Appropriately the core of our soundtrack to this time was Neil Young's Greendale, a concept album based around the lives of family and folk in an imagined rural american farmstead. I was pleased, rather than surprised, when several years later Dan released a sprawling and critically acclaimed, 32 tracks of lush, angular and abstracted psych-folk rock over 3 slabs of vinyl - a project inspired and dedicated to the people of Caithness and Sutherland. The records cover features a Hebridean snow bleached beach and distant mountains. The lone figure in the icy wilderness, bins raised hopeful for the wintering Snowy Owl to appear - that's me that is.
Thus far then my favourite Newhawks have belonged to Dan Haywood but a space will have to be made in my heart now for Berlin's Neuhawks. This was my fourth trip to Berlin but my first with the specific aim of seeing birds. I knew that Berlin was known as a good place to see Goshawks but I wasn't aware how confiding these could be until seeing Rich Baines photos following his visit last February. Thoroughly inspired by his tales of encounters with Habicht, I was more than amiable to the better halfs suggestion of a visit to our friends in the city.
I knew that the wooded Tiergarten, central to the city was THE spot but in, some may say typically, renegade style I spent my first early morning really local, pacing the streets of Nuekolln, checking the cemetries around the district. I did find an active nest and had brief but close views of a male Goshawk cruising through the canopy to the alarm of every Jay and Pigeon in the vicinity. A hulking young female who sat a top a tree but dissappeared as the Hooded Crows mobbed her to distraction, afforded by far my best ever views of a ghost of the woods. Northern Long-tailed Tit, Hawfinch, Firecrest, Short-toed Treecreeper and bouncing Red Squirrels were enjoyable diversions but I only felt partially fulfilled - I still wanted eye to eye contact and my elation was subdued, still yearning.
A late breakfast and into the city with the family. An opportunity for the kids to have a run around on the edge of Tiergarten gave me an excuse to explore further and recce for next morning. It didn't take long until I heard the characteristic agitated call of a Gos nearby. Alert all over I scanned through the beams of Beech and with a shimmy sidewards the bulk of a perched raptor was found. A check with the bins confirmed a male Goshawk. Naively I stalked my way towards it, using cover to approach without spooking it. Within 5 minutes it was clear the bird was nonchalant as I stood beneath it enjoying exactly the eye to eye views I had dreamt about. I spent at least half an hour with this fantastic bird and at points the clouds broke and blueness and sunlight pierced through the Berlin grey of the skies.
I was back next morning with a plan and four hours until I was due to meet the family at the Natural History Museum. Setting out from the far west of the park I walked the paths as centrally between the busy roads as possible. Tuned in to the dawn chorus a sudden switch to silent for most and alarm calls for the Blackbirds and Blue Tits, alerted me to a raptor and a male Goshawk swung past me along the path and up into the canopy where he perched openly and started a cacophony of calls like rounds out of a machine gun. They were replied by deeper barking and jittering deeper into the park. The male jinked through the tangle of branches and closer towards the calling female. I followed and as with the previous days bird he was nonchalant to my presence. This was exceeding my expectations and with another ear splitting volley of calls he took flight and landed a short distance away swiftly joined by the huge and glaring female. She dropped her wings, puffballs of white coverts whipping around her tail and the male took position, jumped and balanced on her back. Their congress was loud, really loud but in seconds it was over. The female lunging aggresively to clear him of her before she took to the sky, shortly to be joined by the male. They displayed above the nest which I had now located in a Larch directly above the path. I watched the display and the birds drifted towards the church, eventually alighting on the cross a top the house of the son of god, where another copulation took place.
Both birds returned and I watched 2 more cycles of pre-copulation chatter, copulation and display. Truly drunk on my views I had quite a few kilometres of park to traverse and I had a suspicion I would find more Goshawks, I left this pair and sidetracked to enjoy Firecrests, Short-toed Treecreepers and Hawfinches along the paths, by the time I left the park at 10.30 I had located 3 nests and a further active pair. High above arrows of Cranes and wild geese passed over, the occasional bugle penetrating the traffic and city rumble.
Our experiences with Goshawks in the UK, unless lucky enough to have licenses and a need to visit Goshawk nests on a professional or research basis are almost always at a distance, their presence confirmed by tempremental soirees over a homeland wood. Ephemeral ghosts, vapours above the boughs, unknown and unfathomable within. To watch these enigmatic predators eyeball to eyeball, complete entities in their preffered space was just exhilirating, as life affirming as a skydive and as fulfilling as any twitched life tick I can remember. A great, great trip. Vicariously, I enjoyed an extension to my trip as pram to grave birding pal, Jono Leadley was visiting the following week and kept us well fed with mouth watering pics by WhatsApp.
Thus far then my favourite Newhawks have belonged to Dan Haywood but a space will have to be made in my heart now for Berlin's Neuhawks. This was my fourth trip to Berlin but my first with the specific aim of seeing birds. I knew that Berlin was known as a good place to see Goshawks but I wasn't aware how confiding these could be until seeing Rich Baines photos following his visit last February. Thoroughly inspired by his tales of encounters with Habicht, I was more than amiable to the better halfs suggestion of a visit to our friends in the city.
I knew that the wooded Tiergarten, central to the city was THE spot but in, some may say typically, renegade style I spent my first early morning really local, pacing the streets of Nuekolln, checking the cemetries around the district. I did find an active nest and had brief but close views of a male Goshawk cruising through the canopy to the alarm of every Jay and Pigeon in the vicinity. A hulking young female who sat a top a tree but dissappeared as the Hooded Crows mobbed her to distraction, afforded by far my best ever views of a ghost of the woods. Northern Long-tailed Tit, Hawfinch, Firecrest, Short-toed Treecreeper and bouncing Red Squirrels were enjoyable diversions but I only felt partially fulfilled - I still wanted eye to eye contact and my elation was subdued, still yearning.
A late breakfast and into the city with the family. An opportunity for the kids to have a run around on the edge of Tiergarten gave me an excuse to explore further and recce for next morning. It didn't take long until I heard the characteristic agitated call of a Gos nearby. Alert all over I scanned through the beams of Beech and with a shimmy sidewards the bulk of a perched raptor was found. A check with the bins confirmed a male Goshawk. Naively I stalked my way towards it, using cover to approach without spooking it. Within 5 minutes it was clear the bird was nonchalant as I stood beneath it enjoying exactly the eye to eye views I had dreamt about. I spent at least half an hour with this fantastic bird and at points the clouds broke and blueness and sunlight pierced through the Berlin grey of the skies.
I was back next morning with a plan and four hours until I was due to meet the family at the Natural History Museum. Setting out from the far west of the park I walked the paths as centrally between the busy roads as possible. Tuned in to the dawn chorus a sudden switch to silent for most and alarm calls for the Blackbirds and Blue Tits, alerted me to a raptor and a male Goshawk swung past me along the path and up into the canopy where he perched openly and started a cacophony of calls like rounds out of a machine gun. They were replied by deeper barking and jittering deeper into the park. The male jinked through the tangle of branches and closer towards the calling female. I followed and as with the previous days bird he was nonchalant to my presence. This was exceeding my expectations and with another ear splitting volley of calls he took flight and landed a short distance away swiftly joined by the huge and glaring female. She dropped her wings, puffballs of white coverts whipping around her tail and the male took position, jumped and balanced on her back. Their congress was loud, really loud but in seconds it was over. The female lunging aggresively to clear him of her before she took to the sky, shortly to be joined by the male. They displayed above the nest which I had now located in a Larch directly above the path. I watched the display and the birds drifted towards the church, eventually alighting on the cross a top the house of the son of god, where another copulation took place.
Both birds returned and I watched 2 more cycles of pre-copulation chatter, copulation and display. Truly drunk on my views I had quite a few kilometres of park to traverse and I had a suspicion I would find more Goshawks, I left this pair and sidetracked to enjoy Firecrests, Short-toed Treecreepers and Hawfinches along the paths, by the time I left the park at 10.30 I had located 3 nests and a further active pair. High above arrows of Cranes and wild geese passed over, the occasional bugle penetrating the traffic and city rumble.
Our experiences with Goshawks in the UK, unless lucky enough to have licenses and a need to visit Goshawk nests on a professional or research basis are almost always at a distance, their presence confirmed by tempremental soirees over a homeland wood. Ephemeral ghosts, vapours above the boughs, unknown and unfathomable within. To watch these enigmatic predators eyeball to eyeball, complete entities in their preffered space was just exhilirating, as life affirming as a skydive and as fulfilling as any twitched life tick I can remember. A great, great trip. Vicariously, I enjoyed an extension to my trip as pram to grave birding pal, Jono Leadley was visiting the following week and kept us well fed with mouth watering pics by WhatsApp.
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