New Bird

[Nightcat]

I spent some time Saturday getting close and personal with this bird



I got to touch and feel her and see her in action, I can only say

OMG over and over in a noobie kinda way at the speed and grace, you ever been buzzed by something like that to mere inches from your face - dot in the sky to HUGE bird in your face in a split second - scary stuff !

I tried getting some action shots with my cam but the only one I could get was of her still... the others were more empty pieces of sky

Seen in on tv, it just don't compete I tell ya!

NC

[AltarBoy]

Is that a Peregrine Falcon? What a graceful-looking bird.

[:FI:Fenian]

Those wings are over-modelled though....

Sorry... someone always has to do this... best to get it out of teh way early in the thread so we can talk about fluffy feathers and suchlike

Those talons look MEAN!!!

[:FI:Sneaky_Russian]

Is that a Peregrine Falcon? What a graceful-looking bird.

Thats a Golden Eagle AB

[Nightcat]

I'm no bird expert and forgot what the different birds were, there was falcons and eagles of all shapes and sizes. Was some owls and Peregrine too. So much info and stuff to put inside my tiny ickle brain

All these birds can do anything between 200-250 mph in a dive, only real fact I remembered - see it and you so easily believe it. But what I just can't over is the birds when breaking out the dive just jynx and cut through crowds as much as fly over them - to much control, they should break up or something surely... !












Some more pics of the guy and his birds, hes one lucky bloke ..

I was thinking, maybe we should get rid of our old Falcon and get one of the newer models

NC

[AltarBoy]

Falcon is a Chicken Hawk. We had gotten some hawks at our airport to keep the ever increasing bird population down. Bird strikes on aircraft is an on-going problem but it seemed the hawks have gotten pretty fat and lazy now. Thanks for the correction Sneaks, I that it looked like a peregrine.

[:FI:Sneaky_Russian]

All these birds can do anything between 200-250 mph in a dive

"What do you mean, an African or European swallow?"

[:FI:Macca]

Damn amazingly astonishingly beautiful plane...ekhm...birds. Sooo free when they're up in the skies, no engine, no windscreen...

aachh...

M

[:FI:Noter]

Always been fascinated by the raptors. Went to a birds of prey show here a while back and Nightcat is spot on about the picture taking, all I got was sky too. Their acceleration is just unbelievable. The top speed is obviously incredible, but how quickly they get there is what blew me away, and the birds we saw never got close to their top speeds. Try breathing at 200mph, their beaks are adapted to regulate the airflow so they can still breath and not just injest gulps of 200 mph air...truly phenomenal. If you get to look closely at the beak you can see the nostril opening and the small ball shape in the middle that does this.

A skydiver has trained a Peregrine to dive with him, and no matter what speed he gets to in the dive the bird matches him perfectly.

Found a link, but not sure if it's the same guy, but how many train falcons to dive with them when skydiving...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ukf2vntU44" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Reports of the Golden Eagle taking down young dear. After seeing the size of the bird, I can believe it. These things are huge.

Saw a vulture clean a 3 pound turkey leg in under 5 seconds. I couldn't finish mine, and I worked on it for half an hour.

Very cool show, would like to go again.

Thanks for the pics NC.

Noter

[:FI:Gurberly]

Handsome mate...very handsome

There's a place not far from here called the Raptor Foundation. All sorts of brds there. Owls from Barn and Snowy to Little to European Eagle owls. Lots of the owls there starred in the various Harry Potter films. Also lost of falcons e.g. kestrals, pergrine, hen harriers etc as well as eagles. e.g. bald eagles african snake...

Amazing place, they do falconary shows and stuff as well.

Incredibly cute Little Owl there called Sweep. Must be about 2 inches high, right grumpy little sod, especially early in the morning. Sits on his perch with just one eye open doing greeeccccch noises at you.

The birds are clever... they have learnt to fly down the gangways between seating banks so that there is less chance of the prey (= chick legs) seeing them approach. Result is you get something as big as as eagle owl literally brushing the top of your head as it goes past. Truly amazing as you really can't hear them coming.

Might take Gen and Gen junior tere

G

[:FI:WillieOFS]

Owls are fun.

Nothing like wandering through the woods at dusk and have one of the big fellows fly right over you at about 2 feet above your head..

You hear them about the time they pull up from the low level high speed pass... I think they enjoy trying to make you have the brown trouser syndrome.

BTW, owl's feathers are made in such a way as to reduce wind noise during their flight. It works VERY well.

Little Screech owls used to play in my bird bath at night when I lived out in the boonies. Noisy little feckers they are. They drove my dogs nuts with their antics at night.

[:FI:Gadje]

First pic is a Golden Eagle and a Harris Hawk in the background.

Harris hawks are the only bird of prey I know of that work as a team, often 4-5 at a time. I've seen film of them hunting rabbits/hares where they BnZ them as they go under bushes, obviously Luftwaffe raptors. One often goes in and chases them on foot till the poor critter bolts and one of the others waiting pounces.

Amazing stuff!

[:FI:Heloego]

I used to go to an area outside Glacier Nat'l Park when i lived in Montana to watch Bald Eagles fish.

An incredible sight when they tuck those wings and dive to the water!
Truly amazing masters of their domain!