[bearcat6]

These guys put a camera on an Imperial Eagle and released it from the tallest building in Dubai. It goes right to it's owner. Pretty good film.
World Record Eagle Flight From World's Tallest Building

 

[CaptainGyro]

Jets are fine, but this is the way flying was meant to be.

Just as in the book "Jonathan Livingston Seagull", I'm convinced some birds fly just for the fun of it. Once at Bryce Canyon National Park, I was standing all alone at the edge of a cliff, when a little hawk flew up and hovered about twenty feet out over the canyon, locking eyeballs with me. All of a sudden, he folded his wings and dropped straight down like a bullet about five hundred feet. Just before he hit the rocks, he spread his wings, did about a 6g pull-up, traded speed for altitude, and came to a perfect hover exactly where he had started.

Once again he locked eyeballs with me and seemed to be saying, "Now you, Hotshot".

 

[t-star]

notice how the little dog HIDES.

 

[Charlie Petty]

That may well have been the most interpreted- or misinterpreted book ever and while I'm not all over crashing into cliffs to see if I come back a better seagull neither can I say it's wrong.

Bach wrote some of the most glorious descriptions of flying and I remain a fan, but think he went a bit overboard with the new ageish stuff

 

[stand watie]

Captain Gyro,

LOL.

Fwiw, when I lived in WDC, where there are numerous Peregrine Falcons nesting on tall buildings, I more than a few times saw a pigeon "explode in a profusion of feathers". = QUITE impressive that was.

yours, sw

 

[CaptainGyro]

I think raptors are some of the most impressive of God's creatures. We have some open space behind our house surrounded by forest, and we watch red-shouldered hawks hunt all day. There are a few mating pairs, and each Spring we're treated to the sight of a couple of fledgling youngsters learning to fly while Mom watches from a nearby tree.

I wouldn't want to be a chipmunk, snake, or lizard in our back yard. I've never seen one of our hawks take a pigeon in mid-air...then again, we don't have pigeons. I wonder if there's a reason?

 

[bearcat6]

Here's an Oregon raptor I saw the other day.

 

[CaptainGyro]

Wow.

 

[t-star]

we have a nesting site over at glenmore reservoir- you wouldn't think so on the bald ass prairie, but baldies are not above taking the odd cat, squirrel, gopher or rabbit- and there's pike in the resevoir

 

[bearcat6]

we have a nesting site over at glenmore reservoir- you wouldn't think so on the bald ass prairie, but baldies are not above taking the odd cat, squirrel, gopher or rabbit- and there's pike in the resevoir

They are great fisherman. I saw one take a fish from an Osprey who had just caught it. He stole it in mid-air. But they catch their own also. the place where I took this picture has several bodys of water nearby.

 

[WaltGraham]

We have Cooper's hawks - I see one take a jay on occasion, well, I see movement out of the corner of my eye and find feathers later.

They must teleport.

We have pileated woodpeckers too.

Impressive - those are pretty big peckers.