The best shot I never got

johnaalex

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I suppose photographers are a bit like anglers when it comes to stories of the "the one that got away", but I missed a cracker today by a fraction of a second. As I was parking the car outside my home I notice an unusual fluttering of feathers in my neighbour's garden. I got out of the car to take a closer look and could not believe my eyes when I saw some type of small hawk standing over a stunned starling which the hawk had obvioulsy plucked out of the air.:eek: The hawk tried to take off with its catch but couldn't quite make it, so as quickly as I could I dashed in to pick up my camera. When I returned to the scene the hawk was hiding under a bush and there was no real clear shot, and as I got the camera to my eye, he took of minus the starling. I did hang around for a bit, but the hawk did not return.:(

What surprises me most is that this happened in Acton, a built up suberb as opposed to a more bucolic location.

I wonder if the starling is still in the hedge, and what it would taste like?:eek::devil:
 
It would be a Sparrow Hawk , was it about Blackird size , poss a bit larger , did it have its wings spread out under the bush ?
 
It would be a Sparrow Hawk , was it about Blackird size , poss a bit larger , did it have its wings spread out under the bush ?

It looked a bit bigger than a blackbird, but yes, it was using its wings to cover the starling.
 
Thats typical of the Sparrow Hawk , its called Mantleing ( covering its catch from predators , thats you ) , male is smaller than the female , we have had one attacking birds in the garden but never managed to be quick enough to get a shot off.
 
Maybe you should have tried to tempt it out of the bush with some cashew nuts :rolleyes:
 
i had one catch a pigeon in the garden, tried to take of with it in its claws but wldnt move, so it just sat there and picked it apart for about half hour
 
Was in Sri Lanka last week, and whilst playing croquet on the beach with a G+T (well, one does, doesn't one), I looked up and a sodding huge sea eagle casually cruised over looking for lunch. It was being tracked by a couple of the local crows....

...the camera was in the bag 60m away and wearing the wrong lens....
 
Mike.P®;7885445 said:
Maybe you should have tried to tempt it out of the bush with some cashew nuts :rolleyes:

:rotfl:
 
Yes, I've had one of those experiences, the one that got away.

I'd not long had my camera and was walking through the deer park at Dunham Massey (National Trust Property). A bit of drizzle in the air and not many people about, then a deer and her fawn just walked in front of me. Then the fawn started to feed from mum.

Went to take a picture, you know the one. The one that would have won the BBC Countryfile Wildlife picture of the decade (well the picture I had in my head would) but...(think of that character in Little Britain that sits behind the computer)...."the camera said NO!"

I'd taken the memory card out of the camera, hadn't put it back in and the camera wouldn't take the picture. My husband has never let me live it down.

Lesson learnt, don't do this again and have loads of spares.

Tina
 
With me it was kids, was taking photo's at a local flower show for the paper last year when I saw through the viewfinder a little girl (about 4) in a nice summer dress bent over in a lovely natural pose smelling some flowers on the display. Was superb, but I thought - do I take the picture first or ask the parents first. Decided on the latter, they were happy so tried to get her to pose again - 15 shots later we got bored and gave up.

Ah well !

Bill
 
I saw a similar thing but it was way too fast for me to even think about getting my camera let along take a shot. I was actually riding on my motorbike through Windsor Great Park when a sparrowhawk shot over my head and smacked straight into a pigeon resulting in a cloud of feathers and one dead pigeon. So fast and dramatic. I cant imagine how cool it would look to catch that on a photo but it would be a tremendously difficult shot to get.
 
At Brands Hatch for a motorbike GP some time ago, had my Oly OM1 set up with a rifle grip + telephoto lens, shot the whole 36 shots. Went to change the film roll.......
No film in the camera!:eek:
 
At Brands Hatch for a motorbike GP some time ago, had my Oly OM1 set up with a rifle grip + telephoto lens, shot the whole 36 shots. Went to change the film roll.......
No film in the camera!:eek:

That happened to me long time back.. then there was the film.. now its something else. always.. :rotfl:
 

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