Guarding dinner

On my way back from town today I passed this harrier feasting on a bit of roadkill, a nice juicy hare.

Australian harriers are a fickle beast to capture on camera - they're very suspicious and with their keen eyesight will spot you from a distance if you pay them any attention. This one was no exception - as soon as I got out of the car to prepare my shot he took off.

I've wanted to get an up-close shot for a while and have had this planned for a few weeks - I've just been waiting for the right opportunity. And this was it.

To get this shot I set up my camera with 16-55 lens on a heavy tripod, fairly low to the ground. I then set the camera on interval timer ( shot every 20 seconds) and retired to a safe distance in my car (about 200m down the road). 

After about 10 minutes the hawk returned to feed on his meal and I got the shot I was after. I had to set my camera to 'electronic shutter' to make sure the camera was completely silent not to disturb the raptor as he tucked in.

I'm not sure if I would have had as much success with a regular DSLR - the shutter noise would likely have scared the bird off. Another big plus for mirrorless!!