I decided to visit West Bay, South Arm, this morning and do a bit of wader watching/photography. As I drove along South Arm Neck, hoping to see a harrier or two, I noticed what looked like a bird of prey atop the grassed sand dune. I turned the car round and sped back to find it was in fact a Brown Hawk--I nearly said only a BH. As I looked for somewhere to turn again, I noticed another bird of prey over the dunes, this one with a flap and glide flight, that I knew would have to be a Goshawk or Sparrowhawk.Hastily pulling over and grabbing camera, I watched as it neared (this is a comparative term!) and realised there were two. Almost immediately a food pass took place. Missed that as far as photos go. But I managed to take a few, rather poor shots, out of the car window, as they circled higher and further away, as a record of that chance encounter. Disappointed on the one hand that it hadn't happened rather closer to me, but on the other, I felt rather privileged to have watched these two birds, Brown Goshawks,an adult female, the larger, and a juvenile male, I believe, going about the business.
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We find about 80% of bird-watching (and about 90% of bird-photography) consists of "just happening" to be in the right place as the right time.
Yas, I agree John. I suppose it could be argued that they are all chance encounters. I did think of calling it "Gosh Hawks!", but decided that might be too corny.
I guess the reason for saying Chance Encounters was that if I hadn't turned round to find the Brown Hawk, I wouldn't have seen the Goshawks.
Many of our best "ticks" have been birds we weren't expecting to encounter, nor were looking for, but we just "happened upon". Hopefully, we might get some of those tomorrow, as we're going out for a day's birding.
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