Tuesday, February 23, 2010

An unusual encounter

Yesterday I was in the car, about 5 miles from the studio, when I noticed something very high up in the trees. A HUGE something... and from the distance I was, and the patterning... I thought "my god... its a bald eagle!" We have had 2 or 3 bald eagle sightings in the area (along the CT river) and I was all fired up. I pulled to the side of the road and grabbed my camera, wandering into the pasture I parked next to in order to get the shot.

As I zoomed in, I realized that it wasn't a bald eagle. Bummer! But, it WAS the biggest red-tail hawk I have ever seen. This guy was HUGE... with a wingspan of 5' easily.

I was merrily snapping away... when suddenly he turned and spotted me...standing out in the pasture...

And took off, flying towards me VERY quickly.

It was at this point that I freaked out and ran like a screaming little girl back to the car. I've never felt like 'prey' before, and while I doubt that he was actually considering a swoop at me, I sure as heck wasn't going to chance it! All I knew for sure was that this guy didn't want his picture taken and I better get out of his line of vision.

I'm sure in his mind... he's grumbling "Dang papparatzi!"

4 comments:

Danielle Feldman said...

LOL

horsienut said...

Cool pictures, especially the one in flight! We have a few of these "monsters" in MA too, have seen them several times in my backyard when they stalk the bird feeders - I was amazed at how much larger they are than our typical Cooper's hawks. I have never been able to grab my camera before they flew away though :(

Field of Dolls Studio said...

Ethan and I saw a bald eagle while we were out fishing on Quabbin. However the camera was buried at the bottom of the waterproof bag so we didn't get any photos. Very cool sight though.

Beth R said...

cool photos is right! Did you know that it's the female Redtails that are the bigger of the species? So it was probably a "she" hunting you down!