Outdoors Women's Experiences

Finding a goshawk nest does not mean you have found a goshawk. Hearing a gos in the area – still not a sure thing. There is only one way to know definitively that you have, in fact, found an active nest. You have to see the goshawk in the nest. And even then, nature can be cold, cruel and unpredictable in the end. Eyas gos in your basket…now you’re getting somewhere!

We’ve found three nest sites this spring, but finding the active nest is the big goal after the egg laying stage. You can sometimes tell which is going to be the active nest by getting close-up views with binoculars if you’re able to see down or fresh greenery in the nest, but that isn’t always the case.

As of this week, Dennis and I have viewed 13 gos nests, have heard six goshawks kakking and have actually seen three this spring. I am reading, hearing and have come to realize how rare (and completely cool!) these experiences are. Most people never see or hear a goshawk in an entire lifetime, and I’ve had the great fortune of encountering this many in my first spring while learning and pursuing falconry with Dennis. Yep, I consider myself one lucky (and happy) woman. Cruising through the woods in search of gos nests with a skilled and knowledgeable hunter makes all the difference!

Some of our outings have been a lot of bushwacking and enjoying the woods around us, with very little excitement or progress toward our goal to show for our efforts. Sometimes, it’s been downright disappointing. We go anyway. Time spent in the beauty and serenity of the woods is better than time spent anywhere else.

Serenity in the woods

And then there have been times we’ve gone out, not sure what we’d experience, and end up so pumped up on the rush and thrill of the hunt and missions accomplished that we can hardly contain ourselves and return to the jeep with beaming smiles, chatting away about our excursion. Let me tell you about two of our evenings in the woods last week!

Once Dennis knew it was the right time frame for egg laying to be complete, our next task was to go back into each of the nest locations we’ve spent hours scouting out, find the nest the female is using for the year and get the tree tinned to help protect the nest, mama and her eggs. Nesting 30-50 feet up in a tree may help protect the nest from some dangers, but they are still easy prey for predators like raccoons, martens, bobcats and fishers. Last week, we went in to find the active nests, and met with some excitement!

We first visited the nest we thought most likely to be the active this year near the location where we heard the pair of goshawks during their courtship vocalizations. We stood back, looked around the top and edges of the nest with the binoculars and saw no signs of activity. Dennis took a stick and tapped the base of the tree while I watch through the binoculars. Nothing. Dammit.

We went back and checked last year’s nest where he’d retrieved Kahn, but there was no sign of activity there, either. We decided to go back to the hemlock tree where we sat that first morning in March and listened to the courtship vocalizations, get a bearing on the GPS and go searching again in that exact direction. He set a course and off we went through the woods. We hiked and searched only a little ways in, and there it was! We found a nest right in line with the location we’d originally heard them, and the nest looked highly promising. It was lined with fresh greenery and down.

Goshawk nest at the site of the pair we heard during their courtship stage.

Looking at the condition of this nest, we expected to find a female on eggs, but no sign of her! No sign, no problem. Dennis explained that sometimes the female sits so low in the nest that you may not be able to see her or even catch a glimpse of her tail hanging over. The next step in this process was for him to climb a nearby tree to get a better look and verify before counting this as our nest and tinning the tree. But we knew this was our nest, because we’d seen the greenery and down, so she had to be there.

Dennis and my son, Alexander, checking out the nest.

He geared up and headed up a hemlock a few trees over.

Dennis gearing up to climb

He climbed while I watched, my eyes darting back and forth between the nest and him climbing a REALLY tall hemlock, my fear of heights – and him falling -kicking into full overdrive at this point. I watched to make sure the female gos didn’t fly off the nest during this intrusion. They can disappear into the woods quickly and silently, and we’d have been none the wiser without keeping an eye out.

I was anxious to get the thumbs up from him when he reached eye level with the nest. I waited. I watched. I held my breath. Well???

Dennis near the top of the hemlock tree

He sat near the top of the tree for a few minutes before looking down at me and shaking his head…NO. What? NO! Ugh. We’d been so sure of this particular location, moreso than any of our others up to this point, because all the signs were right.

I sat on the ground and checked out the little wildflowers popping up through brown leaves around me while Alexander squirmed restlessly a few feet away, sitting on a tree stump.

Trout Lily

We waited while Dennis made a slow descent from the tree, eager to hear what he’d found. I hated seeing that disappointed look on his face. I know how hard he works at this lifestyle and the countless miles and hours he has put in over the years scouring these woods and practicing careful husbandry and wildlife management. Score one for Mother Nature this time. There was no female gos and no eggs. The nest was empty, lined well with fresh greenery and down but that was it. My heart sunk in my chest a little. What a disappointment. We lost this one.

It was nearing dark, and after a short trek through the surrounding woods just to see if we could spot another nest nearby, we made our way back to the jeep. He decided this must have been the active nest, and it was likely ransacked by a predator that ate the eggs. That’s the only reasonable explanation we can think of. We only hope the female has survived, and we can find her still in her home territory and ready to lay again next year.

We planned our trip out for the next evening to check the nest at our second location. Supplies were left in the jeep, ready to go when he got home from work the next day. We’d try this again, hopefully with success on the next trip out with this outdoorsman of mine.

Check back this weekend to read Part 2…till next time!