{"id":869,"date":"2014-06-13T20:44:32","date_gmt":"2014-06-13T12:44:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fryap.wordpress.com\/?p=869"},"modified":"2014-06-13T20:44:32","modified_gmt":"2014-06-13T12:44:32","slug":"a-changeable-hawk-eagle-meal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fryap.com\/blog\/2014\/06\/13\/a-changeable-hawk-eagle-meal\/","title":{"rendered":"A Changeable Hawk-Eagle meal"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a lunchtime break in December 2012, I decided to make a quick round to the former Bidadari Muslim cemetary, a prime birding area in Singapore. Unexpectedly, I was the lone person there. And for good reason. That day, the birds must have decided to take a break. Or perhaps they sense something else…<\/p>\n

As I went along a more wooded area, and ready to leave the place, I saw movement of a large bird. Scanning the area and slowly pacing my steps, I chanced upon a raptor perched on a low branch and close by. Turned out to be a white-morph Changeable Hawk-Eagle (Nisaetus cirrhatus<\/em>). Now normally if the raptor sees a person nearby it will just take-off. But it stayed, so I slowly moved my camera and lens towards my eyes. Once focused on my viewfinder, I could see that it had something on it’s leg.<\/p>\n

\"Changeable<\/a><\/p>\n

It scanned around, looking warily, but never made direct eye contact. I was sure it was aware of my presence and just awaiting for the moment to get away. I rattled a few shots quickly, and the noise from the shutter of my camera made it even more nervous. I decided to continue photographing nonetheless. One does not always get a chance to photograph a raptor with a prey. Once I was satisfied with the shots from the position, I wanted a different background, so I took a step… <\/p>\n

\"Changeable<\/a><\/p>\n

It then decided the that I have crossed the line and flew off for good, prey in tow. And that was the end of the encounter. No feeding shot after all.<\/p>\n

\"Changeable<\/a><\/p>\n

So what was it that it was holding on to? A rat, crushed in the head by it’s powerful leg. A raptor in the city making a meal of an urbanized mammal, in a former cemetery that will soon be a fancy housing estate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On a lunchtime break in December 2012, I decided to make a quick round to the former Bidadari Muslim cemetary, a prime birding area in Singapore. Unexpectedly, I was the lone person there. And for good reason. That day, the birds must have decided to take a break. Or perhaps they sense something else… As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,9],"tags":[31,52,71],"class_list":["post-869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds","category-wildlife","tag-bidadari","tag-changeable-hawk-eagle","tag-feeding"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fryap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fryap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fryap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fryap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fryap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fryap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fryap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fryap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fryap.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}