The BobFinn as she was called was a domestic bred Finnish Goshawk. She was named “The BobFinn” because she was originally owned by a falconer friend who found that he no longer had enough time to do her justice.

He was one of those strange falconers (in my mind) who fail to give their hawks a name, so she came to me unnamed. It was not that hard to find her a name, my friend was called Bob and she was a Finn goshawk.

It was interesting to at last experience the fabled Finn gos after so many years flying German goshawks. In my limited experience I found the most marked difference between the two sub species was to be seen in their approach to hunting pheasant or any other winged game birds.

If a German gos has not made contact or downed a pheasant within the first thirty to forty yards it will often pursue the pheasant in slow flight following the pheasant until it “puts in”.
The Finns just fly a pheasant at full speed until they fly them into the ground, no matter how far or how long the pheasant goes for, it is a hell of a lucky pheasant that out fly's a determined and fit Finn.