Head on

I went for a local walk earlier on and was resigning myself to featuring a sparrow (or similar) for today's Blip, when the crows in the field suddenly took to the air en masse.  I stopped to see what, if anything, had spooked them, and realised that it was this Peregrine falcon.  I think I might have slightly clearer shots of him when he was perched at the top of a large tree, but I was so delighted to actually get a shot of him head-on coming towards the camera at speed having just dived out of the tree that I had to use it, even if its not perfect.

I was standing in the field still, checking back to see if I had a useable shot of the bird when a couple walking their dog stopped and commented on the ridiculously large lens I was carting around.  When I showed them this shot by way of explanation they decided that I might not be quite such an eccentric nutter after all (at least, I think that's what they might have decided).   But now I come to think about it, they probably were right first time around.  :-)

To put this shot into context, it was taken within no more than half a mile of where Cathy and I live.  I've never seen a peregrine locally before, but then I've never been quite so attuned to wildlife, so I may well have missed them, before.  He wasn't around for long - the local crows held an indignation meeting and decided that he needed to be run out of town.