{"id":1582,"date":"2010-03-02T00:03:21","date_gmt":"2010-03-02T00:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/1582"},"modified":"2013-11-11T19:27:21","modified_gmt":"2013-11-11T19:27:21","slug":"rapt-a-tention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/rapt-a-tention\/","title":{"rendered":"Rapt(a)tention"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><span class='imgright'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/yellowhammer_0103105734.jpg' \/><\/span> <br \/>After all my recent moans about the weather, today was beautiful.  In the early morning I watched the yellowhammers flitting from tree to tree, rabbits out in the fields; but it was lunchtime that proved special.<\/p>\n<p>High above the campus, the gulls were screeching and circling. Something had disturbed them; and that something proved to be a group of four buzzards, circling languidly overhead :faint: I watched, and slowly they headed in my direction&#8230;<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/buzzard_0103105834.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/buzzard_0103105836.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/buzzard_0103105837.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/buzzard_0103105838.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/buzzard_0103105875.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>They were there for about 10 minutes, mainly staying in two pairs so I didn&#39;t manage to get a shot of all four together. They eventually tired of the attention of the gulls and swept away to the north. I headed back to my office, pausing by a small wood by the car park. Small birds (chaffinches, blue tits, a goldfinch) were flitting in the trees. A flock of collared doves took the the air. And then I saw why&#8230; a sparrowhawk was prowling the skies.<span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/sparrowhawk_0103105927.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/sparrowhawk_0103105929.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/sparrowhawk_0103105933.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>It swooped low into the woods two or three times while I was watching, too fast for a photo. I didn&#39;t see if its hunt was successful, but an amazing sight to see so close.<br \/><span class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/natureblognetwork.com\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/natureblognetwork.com\/button.php?u=Words\" width=\"0\" height=\"0\" alt=\"Nature Blog Network\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/span><br \/><i>Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 40D and EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[990],"tags":[179,1154,471],"class_list":["post-1582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bird-of-prey","tag-buzzard","tag-sparrowhawk","tag-yellowhammer","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1582\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}