Broad-winged Hawk

Coopers Hawk?, originally uploaded by Sachin N Saraf.

It was a Saturday afternoon and it was raining for most of the morning and sun was still behind the clouds. The conditions were very gloomy. So after lunch at around 2:30 I decided to leave for a shoot as my previous experience was after rains the birds become very active.

So I left and took a road less traveled. I drove on the back side of the hilly area and took a most unexpected turn and as I was passing on the narrow road I saw this magnificent Hawk sitting on top of this dead branch in the open....

My dream finally came true....

without second thought I put the hazard lights on and grabbed my camera and fired this shot out of my car window (I didn't even relaxed by releasing the seat belt).....few passer by inquired if I am alright and even though they were courteous I wished they leave me alone.

How I wish there was little bit of sunlight on this gloomy afternoon. I took this pictures at very high ISO and wasn't sure about the outcome. But to my surprise the pictures were fine after some NR in PP.

It stayed there for very few minutes before it flew deep into the woods. It didn't even give the warning sign that it is going to fly away (Usually all birds look around restlessly before they make a move)... I even tried to take a look if I can go in to that side of the forest but it had fencing so no luck...