蛇鷹

I was out at Nanhua reservoir today taking more pictures for my reservoir essays, and whilst walking back to the road from the dam itself, I caught sight of a very large bird out the corner of my eye: I must have disturbed her because she re-settled in a brisbane tree just a short distance away. My guess would be that either she was just taking a time out from hunting, or she has a nest very close to that spot (which would make sense, since very few people would ever approach the dam structure itself from the western side). Hurrying out the long lens and creeping up as far as I dared go (lest she take off and I lose the opportunity), I took a host of hurried shots whilst holding my breath and trying to keep the lens steady. Then she turned to face me and just lept off the branch - my attempted composure went to shit as I wheeled the camera frantically shooting as much as I could.

However, the images are good enough to allow almost certain identification: she was a crested serpent eagle. Here's another area where I need to work on my camera skills - the images are atrociously blurred, but you can clearly see what a great moment this was...