hi...this sighting is a bit late but  better late than never..this is my first post here......we were driving down the M66 which had just about started...on Monday 24th October about 12.40pm when i notice a brownish-greyish bird fly across......i did nt pay attention to it at first...buthen then i thought its not a bird that registered in my mind straight away.......it was nt a Jay....and then i thought a female sparrow hawk but it appeared at least wood pigeon sized but smaller than the carrion crows mobbing it......it did nt appear that much shorter but probaby body mass smaller.....or the contrast of the colours may hev made it look smaller....

as i watched it...i thought it was larger than the usual female sparrow hawks i had seen...with longer wings than the stubby wings of a sparrow hawk.....  and a slender and longer body than any sparrow hawk i had seen before......i am almost certain the bird was a male Goshawk.....a female goshawk it was nt for sure.......

although this could have been a passage migrant i remember some time either in last autumn or lae winter/early spring this year i saw what was a bird of prey being mobbed by some crows in an area that is very close to where tha bove sighting toopk place but on the Bury to Rawtenstall road.....over the bridge which crosses the m66................at first i thought heron but it was not that much larger than the carrion crows mobbing it....it was obvously bigger but at the most 10 cm i would have guessed......it was a grey-brown bird.....i thought it could have been a kestrel but far too big to be one and the wings of this bird were not pointed....i did wonde if the bird was a Harrier .....i guessed it was nt a buzzard........i never thought much of this sighting until i saw what i am sure was a goshawk on the 24 of october this year.....it was a couple of hours before sunset too at about 3-4.30pm....