While walking through the meadow at Waterloo Mills Preserve this week, I noticed a hawk flush up from the wetland and land in a tree along the stream.

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My initial thought, based on the bird's size, was that is was a Red-tailed hawk but after looking at the bird through my binoculars, I saw it wasn't a Red-tail after all. I noticed an overall dark brown color to the bird with heavy streaking running down the entire chest, originating from the throat. The bird was bigger than a Cooper's Hawk, one of our common woodland raptors. Looking closely, I noticed yellow legs and feet, banding in the tail, and a white (not prominent) eye line. The bird then flew away from me with a very heavy, powerful wing beat unlike that of a Red-shouldered, Red-tailed, or Cooper's Hawk. While flying away to an adjacent woodland, the bird showed a heavy build and pointed wings. It was a juvenile Northern Goshawk. After fourteen years of living at the Waterloo Mills Preserve, this is the first Northern Goshawk I've ever found on the property. Goshawks breed much further to the north, but can be found in our region during the winter months.  The photo below is of a juvenile Northern Goshawk, though not the one I spotted at Waterloo.