Traffic Control
We see him very rarely, but he is around... apparently waiting in ambush.
There was an amazing bang today as a bird, flying full-out, slammed into one of our downstairs windows. When I hopped up to see what had happened, I found a beautiful (though, not overly friendly) Sharp-shinned Hawk pouncing on a stunned Starling. The Hawk took a peek at me, then set about disassembling his victim right in front of me - not 3-feet away. By the time I got my camera in hand, the worst had already been taken care of. Unfortunately, my camera tried to compensate for the bright background, dropping the Hawk into some serious shadow.
Just before he flew off with his leftovers, the Hawk hopped over to a covered area near the corner of the house, and posed for this last shot. This time I was having problems trying to shoot at an angle through 3 panes of glass.
(Well, he doesn't look too distorted...)
Wild kingdom, in my own front yard!
There was an amazing bang today as a bird, flying full-out, slammed into one of our downstairs windows. When I hopped up to see what had happened, I found a beautiful (though, not overly friendly) Sharp-shinned Hawk pouncing on a stunned Starling. The Hawk took a peek at me, then set about disassembling his victim right in front of me - not 3-feet away. By the time I got my camera in hand, the worst had already been taken care of. Unfortunately, my camera tried to compensate for the bright background, dropping the Hawk into some serious shadow.
Just before he flew off with his leftovers, the Hawk hopped over to a covered area near the corner of the house, and posed for this last shot. This time I was having problems trying to shoot at an angle through 3 panes of glass.
(Well, he doesn't look too distorted...)
Wild kingdom, in my own front yard!