A Week For Harriers

I've been wanting to get some more photos of a swamp harrier or kahu (also known as the Australasian harrier) for a while. We regularly see them hovering over our garden and in the valley behind our house but normally by the time I've grabbed a camera they've soared too far away. THen suddenly this week became the week for potographing the harrier.

First on Tuesday night when I was coming home from work, their was a harrier in the paddock beside the drive feeding on a rabbit. I managed to drive past without disturbing it then raced back out with my camers using the car as a blind to capture these photos.

Then on Sunday morning I headed down to the Waiwhakaio river mouth to see what birds might be about. I was watching a flock of goldfinch when I sensed somehting moving towards me and looked up to see a harrier flying low over the grass flying straight towards me. By the time Iocked on to it, it was already too close to fit in the frame.

At the last minute before passing over me it swerved to the side and I almost lost it from the frame but felt extremely lucky to capture this shot of it looking right at me.

Then, when I got home there were three harrier circling low over our drive and stayed around long enough for me to grab my camera and get out of the car.