sdwsp
Senior Member
What was THAT?
I was having dinner at my campsite along the West Marys River in the Jarbidge Wilderness. It was shortly before sunset, and the dense forest of pine and spruce trees towered up around me with patches of sky peeking through the treetops. I was concentrating keeping my dinner balanced on my knees while sitting on a log.
I looked around and saw --- nothing.
Then again it rang out --- a very clear, harsh "ca-ca-ca" followed by clicking. (Through the miracle of the Internet you can actually hear what I heard at this link --- http://home.hccnet.nl/r.goedegebuur/geluid/havik.wav ) I looked straight ahead and there it was --- perched on top of a tree maybe 100 yards away. Where are my binoculars? In the tent, of course; too far. So I pulled out my FZ10 with attached TL-55 and took a look. This is what I saw ---
f2.8, 1/60 sec @ full digital zoom
Hard to get a bird ID with its back to me, but there were telltale signs if I only knew it at the time. It then flew away. Oh well, back to balancing my (now cold) dinner...
About a half-hour later, it (or another one) was about the same distance away on top of a tree to my right. It too was raucously "caw-ing", and then it made a beeline --- straight to me as if it were sliding down a clothesline, seemingly screaming bloody murder all the while. I stood rooted to the ground as about 20 feet away from me it pulled up and flew 5 feet over my head. It was thrilling --and of COURSE I didn't get a picture of it.
I didn't know at the time that I'd just encountered a Northern Goshawk, THE favorite falconry bird of the Middle Ages. Once back home, I discovered upon doing some research that it is fierce, aggressive --- and persistent when pursuing its prey to the point of being reckless, charging through underbrush, all the time screaming and its eyes glowing a fiery blood-red. It sounded demonic...
But my encounters with the goshawks weren't over yet.
The next day I was walking up a trail when I heard its raucous cry again. It was on top of another tree, and this time I got a better view ---
high saturation, 1/125 sec, f6.5 @ full digital.
Awesome. I was enthralled. Then it happened again --- it flew off its treetop perch and beelined right to me. This time I had the Fluzi ready, but ---
high saturation, 1/125 sec, f2.8 @ 432mm.
It was just too close and the focus was all off as the camera was on manual setting, but I got off a shot. And you can see the distinctive white stripes over its eyes. At that moment I felt like I had been taken down a notch on the food chain. I had visions of that scene from "The Birds" where Rod Taylor came upon the body with its eyes bloody sockets.
I spied another goshawk on a tree limb closer to the ground and was able to get closer, clearer shots ---
1/320 sec, f2.8 @ 344mm
1/400 sec, f3.7 @ 432mm.
And then a little later, another one in the treetops. And finally, for the 3rd time in 2 days, it too decided to have a go at me. The Fluzi god was on my side as the shot finally came out ---
1/400 sec, f5.3 @ 432mm
I was probably lucky I was ignorant of what was happening. The goshawks were defending their nearby nests and are legendary for their dive-bombing techniques. They have been known to attack humans; here is a link to a bird-watcher in Connecticut who had a closer brush with the goshawks than I ---
http://pages.cthome.net/rwinkler/goshawk2.htm
But like him I, too, was thrilled with having faced primeval wildness in all its glory. And I was grinning like an idiot all the while, and thankful that I had the FZ10 to record it all.
Gee, now I'll have to go back...
Steve
http://trailhiker.smugmug.com
I was having dinner at my campsite along the West Marys River in the Jarbidge Wilderness. It was shortly before sunset, and the dense forest of pine and spruce trees towered up around me with patches of sky peeking through the treetops. I was concentrating keeping my dinner balanced on my knees while sitting on a log.
I looked around and saw --- nothing.
Then again it rang out --- a very clear, harsh "ca-ca-ca" followed by clicking. (Through the miracle of the Internet you can actually hear what I heard at this link --- http://home.hccnet.nl/r.goedegebuur/geluid/havik.wav ) I looked straight ahead and there it was --- perched on top of a tree maybe 100 yards away. Where are my binoculars? In the tent, of course; too far. So I pulled out my FZ10 with attached TL-55 and took a look. This is what I saw ---
f2.8, 1/60 sec @ full digital zoom
Hard to get a bird ID with its back to me, but there were telltale signs if I only knew it at the time. It then flew away. Oh well, back to balancing my (now cold) dinner...
About a half-hour later, it (or another one) was about the same distance away on top of a tree to my right. It too was raucously "caw-ing", and then it made a beeline --- straight to me as if it were sliding down a clothesline, seemingly screaming bloody murder all the while. I stood rooted to the ground as about 20 feet away from me it pulled up and flew 5 feet over my head. It was thrilling --and of COURSE I didn't get a picture of it.
I didn't know at the time that I'd just encountered a Northern Goshawk, THE favorite falconry bird of the Middle Ages. Once back home, I discovered upon doing some research that it is fierce, aggressive --- and persistent when pursuing its prey to the point of being reckless, charging through underbrush, all the time screaming and its eyes glowing a fiery blood-red. It sounded demonic...
But my encounters with the goshawks weren't over yet.
The next day I was walking up a trail when I heard its raucous cry again. It was on top of another tree, and this time I got a better view ---
high saturation, 1/125 sec, f6.5 @ full digital.
Awesome. I was enthralled. Then it happened again --- it flew off its treetop perch and beelined right to me. This time I had the Fluzi ready, but ---
high saturation, 1/125 sec, f2.8 @ 432mm.
It was just too close and the focus was all off as the camera was on manual setting, but I got off a shot. And you can see the distinctive white stripes over its eyes. At that moment I felt like I had been taken down a notch on the food chain. I had visions of that scene from "The Birds" where Rod Taylor came upon the body with its eyes bloody sockets.
I spied another goshawk on a tree limb closer to the ground and was able to get closer, clearer shots ---
1/320 sec, f2.8 @ 344mm
1/400 sec, f3.7 @ 432mm.
And then a little later, another one in the treetops. And finally, for the 3rd time in 2 days, it too decided to have a go at me. The Fluzi god was on my side as the shot finally came out ---
1/400 sec, f5.3 @ 432mm
I was probably lucky I was ignorant of what was happening. The goshawks were defending their nearby nests and are legendary for their dive-bombing techniques. They have been known to attack humans; here is a link to a bird-watcher in Connecticut who had a closer brush with the goshawks than I ---
http://pages.cthome.net/rwinkler/goshawk2.htm
But like him I, too, was thrilled with having faced primeval wildness in all its glory. And I was grinning like an idiot all the while, and thankful that I had the FZ10 to record it all.
Gee, now I'll have to go back...
Steve
http://trailhiker.smugmug.com
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