Australasian Harrier Hawk

This resulted from a close encounter I had with an Australasian Harrier Hawk just outside my workshop window. I often see them in the air and collecting carrion on the road, but to encounter one at eye level and about 8 feet away was an unforgettable experience.

I've also just had the joy of standing under our hill and watching a harrier hawk trolling for prey - swooping and soaring against the steep bush background. Raptors are truly the masters of flight and while one may not admire their habits, one must admire their total mastery of the element :

"I CAUGHT this morning morning’s minion, king-
dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!"

from The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins