jasminott's Favorites

Possibly some of the worst photos on iNat, but we do what we can with what we have ...

I was out cross-country skiing and happened upon this hawk. I reached the bottom of a small hill before realizing that the hawk had just caught a small critter. The hawk turned and looked at me, then swooped up into a nearby tree. I only had a point-and-shoot camera, the hawk was relatively far away, and it was snowing quite heavily at the time. Therefore, I got terrible photos.

But I believe it is a Northern Goshawk as it had a white underbelly and dark back. It also had a dark cap, including a dark streak across its eyes. What I found really odd, however, is that I was essentially above the hawk when I first came across it since I was a little higher on the hill than it. When it flew away, it appeared that it's tail feathers were dark (vertical orientation), but was flanked by white feathers. Those white looking feathers are curious to me. I don't think I was just imagining it...

The last two pics are what I found after the hawk flew up into the tree.

Let me know what you think. One of these days I want to get a decent shot of Goshawk!