Just south of Lake Walton on the Dutchess Rail Trail, I encountered a barred owl with wings spread around something yummy in its talons (clicky for more dots):
The owl acquired weapons lock on me, just in case I might try to steal its fresh-killed meal:
My neck doesn’t turn nearly that far, so I lost the staring contest:
Owls being good folks to have around, we wish ’em well: may they raise many owlets!
The pictures were extracted from the Sony HDR-AS30V helmet camera with this incantation:
avconv -ss 00:05:30 -i /mnt/video/2015-05-15/MAH00389.MP4 -t 20 -f image2 -q 1 Image-%04d.jpg
The -q 1 parameter should produce an image with the same dots as the original, but that really doesn’t mean much in the face of the camera’s relentless video compression.
Here’s a dot-for-dot crop (at 100% JPEG quality = uncompressed) showing the tradeoff between wide field-of-view, detail, and compression:
Makes me appreciate my eyesight: I spotted that owl when it covered just a few image pixels. Of course, at first I thought somebody dropped a hoodie on the trail, then maybe it was a chunk of debris, so I eased off the asphalt onto the gravel Just In Case.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
Most of the birds at the local Road-Kill Cafe are magpies, but occasionally we get a golden eagle. Not sure if it’s roadkill, or good timing on the eagle’s part…
I had a robin do a nest on my weed-wacker/cultivator/etc power head in the shelter. I moved the nest (4 eggs) and it looks like momma is willing to go with my placement. Maybe.
We watched “our” hawk take three mice in quick succession from the undergrowth that was once our neighbor’s flower garden: timing may be everything, but it starts with keen eyesight!