Thursday, December 17, 2009

Building a Goshawk triangle

The goshawk triangle will be inverted. The base of the triangle will be at the average cruising altitude of the NG, at 150 -200 feet over the tall trees. If no trees , such as desert scrub, average elevation will be about the same, 200 feet over the the desert floor. The legs of the triangle will point into the tree tops. Or, the point of the triangle will reach the tree tops. Certainly, a Goshawk can stoop toward the ground to kill prey. But, many times a NG will perch high in a tree. From its initial perch a NG will usually hunt downward or downward and outward. So the triangle can be maneuvered over the surface of the terrain, in all directions. If from a roosting area-or nesting area: The Goshawk will hunt over an area of about 5 miles in many different directions from the roosting site.
The Cooper's Hawk triangle is low to the ground and the base is parallel to the ground or foliage. The point of the Cooper's triangle points toward the top of the shrubs or medium high trees.
What all of this means: Goshawks live in the sky. The NG hunting cycle is sky-tree-sky. (And the gist of this weblog is- Goshawks cannot hide in the sky. They don't wish to hide. They love the sky.)The Cooper's Hawk hunting cycle is to stay within the greenery, and sneak about. Except when the hawk wishes to get from one, long distance to another. "Long", meaning a couple of 100 yards or so. Then the Cooper's will will fly in straight-line flight over the top of the terrain, be it houses or tree tops. Or just over the top of the shrubs. When goshawks are perched in foliage, usually they are well-exposed. NG certainly will perch on telephone poles in Arizona. The NG triangle is at any one time much larger than a Cooper's Hawk hunting triangle.

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