A View to a Kill

The last time I blipped a sparrow hawk it was through the kitchen window - a very wet female devouring her prey in the rain. 

https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/2941770445667437380

Today is very different. It’s a relatively quiet carpark in Llandudno and as we’re passing, I suddenly spot this magnificent raptor with her just-caught prey, a feral pigeon just about the same size as the hawk herself. 

I have my camera, but my 600mm lens is in the boot, so after shooting a couple of
distant shots from the car, I risk getting out to get it. She actually flies off - though I miss this - somehow managing to carry her sizeable prey just further along the tarmac before settling down to eat, so self-absorbed that nothing matters beyond the consumption of the kill. 

She’s mesmerising of course. Those huge yellow eyes piercing, her beak and face feathers marked with her victim’s blood - nature in the raw. 

And so she has to be my blip today - though I realise the subject matter is not to everyone’s taste. I’ve cropped shots to hide the really visceral subject matter, but my favourite shot is the final extra where you can see the hawk in all her magnificence - but it’s particularly gruesome, so please don’t look at it if you have  a sensitive disposition.