Goshawk

When I came back from shopping these feathers were on the track. In the fairly gloomy forest light I saw a powerful hawk fly, it seemed vertically, into a big oak tree.

I’m thinking this was a goshawk. They are resident in the Casentino and prey largely on jays and to a lesser extent squirrels. The jay in Italian is a Ghirlandaio, named thusly because their winter survival is based on the Ghirlandi (acorns) that fall in prodigious numbers in late autumn.

I’ve seen goshawks once or twice gliding just above the forest canopy and J picked one up on the Merlin bird id app recently. The prey here seems to have been a wood pigeon. There are a few pairs that we see racing (no wonder) across the sky back up to the higher forest. Normally you’d think a pigeon was peregrine prey but I’ve never seen one here and two big for the local sparrowhawks.