Duck!

[mudder]

G'day,
Went out to Organ Pipes national park this morning, and spent nearly an hour protecting myself from a really agro Goshawk!!!

They even have signs warning of the bloody thing, no wonder... Got me on his first go (drew blood on the back of my scone! Shit it hurt!)... Couldn't get any decent shots as it swooped me every time I concentrated to setup the tripod!

Blurry I know, I know... I had to try and keep an eye on him while trying to setup some landscape shots... Hard to catch a Goshawk in a battle dive with focus on single etc. with the camera still attached to the tripod!

Wow, ended up giving up on the landscape stuff... Phew, an interesting morning... I'll post some shots of the Organ Pipes and the Willows historic homestead in Meltone in a tick...

http://www.pixspot.com./displayimage.php?album=92&pos=0
http://www.pixspot.com./displayimage.php?album=92&pos=1 Blurry, I know, I know... This was a quick snap after picking up the camera while still on the tripod!!!

Cheers,
A bruised and battered Mudder

[Greg B]

Geez mudder, it has got the evil eye in that first shot - formidable!

[mudder]

G'day,
The only chance I had was when it stopped it's calling, I knew it was coming from somewhere!

Cheers,
Mudder (licking my wounds)

[phillipb]

I would have swapped the zoom lens for a nice bit of willow I'm sure you would have got some interesting shots of him in a slightly more sedate pose.

[mudder]

I would have swapped the zoom lens...

G'day Phillip,
The shot of him in the air was with the kit lens at 18mm!!! That was after he nearly got me the second time... Or was it the third, or maybe the...

I'm laughing now in hind-sight... I'm glad no-one saw it... Geeessss, beaten up by a bird...

Cheers,
Mudder

[meicw]

Mudder, I think that you deserve an award for keeping on snapping in the face of enemy fire. He (or could be a she I guess) certainly has a glint in its eye. And I thought maggies were bad enough.

Regards
Meic

[Onyx]

Mudder, you sure suffer for your art. I recall you visitng an historic farm and getting to know the electric fence, and now this incident with the goshawk...

[mudder]

Mudder, you sure suffer for your art. I recall you visitng an historic farm and getting to know the electric fence, and now this incident with the goshawk...

Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't have admitted the one with the electric fence That one was when I saw a nice tree over a pond and thought "that looks nice" and promptly ended up flat on my arse on the edge of said pond... I was really only checking how well the CF cards handle shocks

I'm worried about my next outing now... Hope I don't get scarred!

Cheers,
Mudder

[Killakoala]

I'm worried about my next outing now... Hope I don't get scarred!

Places to avoid:
1. Rifle Ranges.
2. Cliffs.
3. Car racing.
4. Kite flying
5. Airports
6. Cricket
7. The zoo
8. Redfern
9. Baghdad