Bird of Prey - Uriah Heep

Part of formulating a new life and direction is getting down (at long last) to the onerous task of catching up on editing and labelling 'tens of thousands' of photographs, a process that has already started. Disciplining myself to spending the Dog Watches pursuing this task has the 'up side' of viewing shots that have lain in the archive for too long. While most of these may be familiar to regular readers some, like those posted here, are thought to be so exciting that a second viewing will be no hardship. 

Sunday 26th February 2012 in Gangwon-do Province, South Korea was bitterly cold, to say the least, but crossing a snow covered road bridge on the outskirts of Dong Song township there was a sight to warm the cockles of anyone's heart.

There in the freezing Hantan River below me and among a group of

MALLARD

 there looked to be a 'bird of prey' bathing.

 Apart from the occasional turn of the body it appeared stationary

in the calm water, but I was not the only one who was finding its 

presence interesting!

 

 A LARGE-BILLED CROW was also paying some attention

 but 'mobbing' is not unusual as far as Raptors are concerned 

so I continued to try and identify the bird.

 Eventually, it started moving and looked every bit as though it was 

walking on the riverbed towards the shore and ID'd as a

GOSHAWK

 The closer it got to the beach the more 'fuss' it seemed to be making,

 but all became clear as it clambered onto land

 to reveal it was 'towing' an adult male MALLARD which it had,

all this time, been stood on!

 A couple of un-cropped images to indicate distance from the bridge.

 Despite a prolonged underwater experience

 and having part of its breast pecked out

 there were still signs of life

 with a good bit of flapping

 and at one point some retaliation.

 With the Duck subdued

 the Goshawk, now seeming a little concerned,

 tucked in to the succulent breast meat.

 The uneasiness was confirmed when the Crow reappeared

 bringing with it a couple of its mates.

 The Goshawk put them to flight time after time

 but that only seemed to attract more Corvids

as the first MAGPIE arrived.

 What followed was a game of 'cat and mouse'

which was a marvellous sight to witness.

 In all the mêlée that followed attracted a total of

4 Large-billed Crows and 7 Magpies,

 but 'to the victor the spoils' and the Hawk flew off satiated. 

Perched in what looked like someones garden,

I shifted position to where

its engorged crop could be clearly seen to be distended.

In addition it let out what seemed to be a few squawks

of satisfaction

and satisfaction at which point I left it to its own devices.