Goshawk fighting

A walk around Maridalen yesterday had a few nice encounters. I had quite a few sightings of Buzzards, Sparrowhawks and Goshawks and two Goshawks that were play fighting for a long time were fascinating to watch. They were a juvenile and adult male and the youngster kept attacking the older bird. I think this behaviour is a way of practicing hunting skills and is similar to another common sight at the moment which is young Sparrowhawks going after Crows, Magpies and Jays.

I spent some time with the Whooper Swan family and the 8 youngsters look fully grown now and will probably start flight school soon. This is the second time the pair has had 8 young but the first time that all 8 have survived so long. The literature says 7 is the maximum brood size so this pair really is a super pair.

Here is a sequence of photos of the two Goshawks. Both were very small birds which makes them males and the juvenile can be identified due to its brown pluamge and the vertical streaking on its underparts.

the young Goshawk (hønsehauk) has its eyes on the adult

here they are both sat in a tree

the adult male - this is a particularly small individual that invites confusion with an adult female Sparrowhawk

juveniles can't be confused with anything else though

all 8 young Whooper Swans (sangsvane) with one of their parents