High in the sky, a white goshawk battled wild winds and the attention of an angry kelp gull.
Flying against the backdrop of a snowy kunanyi/ Mt Wellington, the all-white goshawk might have believed the peak offered it camouflage as it patrolled the airways. But the raptor was mistaken. Its fluttering wings revealed its menacing presence to watching eyes
Ironically, the mountain should have been free of snow in the last few weeks of spring but an unseasonal blizzard brought snowfalls to both the peak and the outer suburbs nestled in the mountain’s foothills.
In fact, the winter blast on November 15 marked the coldest November night in 68 years. The extreme weather, though, did not seem to affect the birds. The kelp gulls and others still managed go about their business, tending to nests and finding food. All the while, as ever, they were keeping watch for birds of prey, not just the white goshawk but the feared peregrine falcon which was more likely to snatch flying birds from the air.
In contrast, the white goshawk tends to fly lower and slower than the peregrine, on broad feather-tipped wings. Although it has the appearance of a sulphur-crested cockatoo in flight, the kelp gull rising to meet it against the snowy backdrop was also not to be fooled into thinking this was a harmless cockatoo. And nor were two forest ravens who took over the attack after the goshawk had moved out of the gull’s airspace.
The goshawk dodged the gull with ease but the ravens offered a different proposition, lunging at the raptor with open beaks and then turning side on to try and strike it with their sharp claws.
The white goshawk is a sub-species of the grey goshawk found on the mainland which, as its local name suggests, comes in a lighter form, or morph.
When I arrived in Hobart in 2000 it was considered rare but in more recent times it has become far more common.
It was once renown for raiding backyard chicken coops, perching on the chicken wire if it wasn’t possible to get into the runs themselves. Such birds – usually juveniles which had yet to develop a fear of people – were captured by wildlife rangers and transported to an area of north-western Tasmania where the threatened species has a stronghold.
In more recent years the wildlife authorities have conducted a goshawk education campaign, urging residents with a raptor problem to merely cover up the chicken runs; the message being the goshawks will eventually lose interest and move on.
At the same time there has been a more tolerant attitude towards birds of prey, perhaps linked to a growing awareness and interest in birds and wildlife in general.
Today the winds of change are embracing the goshawks and they have become be a symbol of hope for our urban birds.