Northern Goshawk

The best thing happened to me in the New Year's Eve was probably getting photos of this magnificent female Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) at Oita River. I was so tired and exhausted after a 10km-walk from Kaku to Oita. As I was crossing the bridge from Hirosemachi to Tsumori, a big white object flashed up before my eyes from the dense tree down below. I took out my binocular and gave a good look at it, and bingo, a Northern Goshawk, a species of which I've always been yearning for. I was so excited but tried to be as calm as I could. I slowly snapped a few shots before moving around to find the perfect angle for the bird.

Female Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis)

I moved very slowly, afraid that the bird would fly away too soon before I could get any good shot. It actually turned out that the bird hardly cared about my existence at all. Even though it was sitting on a tree in a relatively close range for raptors, it didn't move or act like it was about to take off at all. I guess it was because of the flock of Brown-eared Bulbuls, which was mobbing the goshawk with their noisy screeching sounds, that distracted the goshawk's attention away from me. Though it was getting darker and I had to shoot at the speed of only 1/50 sec, I was so happy and really felt thankful for the bird to stay long enough for me to get all these shots. It did finally fly out though, as the bulbuls were too annoying.