By the time I graduated from UC Davis my passion for birds was strong and I was extremely excited about my first job. Networking with classmates at school, I found myself submitting for a temporary biological technician position, with the US Forest Service, at Lake Tahoe, CA/NV. I was offered and accepted the position and with great excitement began my six months of exploring Lake Tahoe. I had never birded the mountains before and I could only imagine the diversity of species I would see there.

My partner Tony a botanist and I were primarily responsible for conducting Northern Goshawk surveys, habitat inventories, and sensitive plant surveys. All of our survey and inventory work was conducted using aerial photos, quad maps, and a compass. A GPS? Oh, there was no such thing! We wandered the forests as orienteers and if all went well we would be back at our vehicle at the end of the day. Things did not always go as planned. But that is another story.

The Northern Goshawk, a forest bird-of-prey, is very territorial while nesting and is known to dive-bomb people getting too close to their nests. Needless to say, the use of a hard hat, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), on nesting territories was a necessity. Always, safety first! Surveys for these elusive birds were conducted in spring and summer. The survey protocol required playing a Goshawk audio recording over and over again in the study area. Call points were set along a survey route which was vehicular and/or pedestrian. It often took days to cover one study area and more often than not no Goshawks were found. There were times when plucking posts (sites where feathers or fur from a kill were observed) were found and that indicated at least foraging activity was occurring in the area. Excitement really came when a verbal response to the Goshawk audio call was heard or a bird flew in low over our heads screaming. We knew then that we were in a nesting territory. Finding the actual nest was a different story.

Try to find a nest in a conifer tall enough for a Goshawk, it was quite a challenge. Conifers never completely lose their needles. The primary conifers in Lake Tahoe include Jeffrey pine, lodgepole pine, white fir and red fir. Nesting territories were also found in aspen stands. Should luck have it, the nest would still be visible if the tree had not leafed out yet. As you might guess that was not usually the case. Nothing came easy searching for this “needle in a haystack”. The adventure itself was fun, even if no Goshawks were found. So, day after day and week after week we searched the Lake Tahoe Basin for the Northern Goshawk. We explored low elevation white fir and Jeffery pine stands to high elevation red fir stands. We spent little time on developed trail systems as it was necessary to get deep into the forest to find these birds.

It was to our great surprise when we finally observed our first Goshawk on territory and found the nest. What a unique and exciting experience! The bird was screaming at us and eventually left the area. We stayed only long enough to collect some nest tree and habitat data. Then with great speed we left so as not to disturb the bird(s) any more than necessary. The active nest sites were monitored throughout the spring and summer to determine if any nests were successful. Unfortunately one of the nests was robbed by what appeared to be a mammalian predator. Mortality of young was high, although we knew of at least one nest that successfully raised two chicks to the fledgling stage and beyond.

During Goshawk surveys it was also our job to identify other birds and mammals observed during the survey efforts. Some of the bird species encountered included the following: Steller’s Jay, Mountain Chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, White-breasted Nuthatch, Pygmy Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Western Tanager, Hairy Woodpecker, and many more. Mammals were tougher to find but our encounters included: Black Bear, Pine Marten, Mule Deer, Douglas Squirrel, Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel, Chipmunks, Cottontail Rabbit, Coyote, Raccoon, and a few others. As I mentioned Tony and I had other responsibilities and the habitat inventories also led us off onto many an adventure. I will save those for another day.

Do you have a passion? Were you able to make it your career? How did you do it? Leave a comment and let me know about your passion. Follow my blog for the next edition of “My Passion, My Career – Part III”.

If you want to learn more about the life history and call of the northern goshawk visit the following URL: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Goshawk/lifehistory