This morning started as usual: before dawn at the Watch Hill Lighthouse, cozied up to the seawall with the car window open. The sunrise was blocked by cloud cover and my mind was wandering at bit when I saw a bird flying toward me on my right. My first instinct was that it was just another Seagull, but as my bird spotting synapses kicked in, I realized it was a hawk (or the like). Because of the angle of the its trajectory, I couldn’t get a photo from inside the car, but that did not stop my photographic pursuit! I grabbed my camera and flung open my car door, which hit the sea wall, bounced back, hit me, and flung me right back into the car. Think Keystone Kops, here, the birding version.
I'm fine, by the way and so is the car; I just felt ridiculous.
And, of course, I missed the shot.
I’m pretty sure it was a hawk. I think either a Coopers or a Sharp Shinned or maybe a Northern Harrier, but now we’ll never know for sure without a photo to provide confirmation. By the time I got out of the car again, it was long gone. I drove through most of Watch Hill looking for the bird, for a second shot at him, to no avail. However, I did see a lovely RTH (Red-tailed Hawk; I'm so familiar with them at this point I feel they deserved their own nickname) on an evergreen tree on Ocean View Highway. So not all was lost. Just a bit of my pride. Luckily it was too early in the day for the local bird paparazzi. So, my Keystone Kop-ish hitting the wall secret is safe.
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