Today in Hawks around Town – Adams Morgan

Thanks to Josh Gibson for going the extra mile to get these great closeups:

“Lanier Place, Adams Morgan, DC
On my way home from dropping my daughter off at the bus, I was walking up the stairs when I noticed a hawk perched on the fire escape across the courtyard.

The zoom on my iPhone wasn’t sufficient, so I ran to get my binoculars. But you can’t take photos with binoculars. However, necessity is the mother of invention, so…

Who knew that if you very carefully point the lens of the iPhone at the lens of the binoculars, and stand super-still, you get a mediocre, but waaaaay better than nothing, telephoto lens.

So, eat your heart out, Steve Jobs/John Audubon (or eat your prey’s heart out, hungry hawk), here are my awesome-despite-themselves photos. Some almost look like Impressionist paintings, no thanks to me…

PS: For the first five minutes or so, the hawk stood still, just rotating his/her head. Only then did s/he start eating the dead bird s/hehad been perched on all along.”

If you spot a hawk or any other bird of prey around town, lunching or otherwise, and get a good photo please send in an email where you spotted it to [email protected] and I’ll add it to the queue. Hawks around Town is made possible by a generous grant from the Ben and Sylvia Gardner foundation.