August 29, 2024 : Wondercab Mini (74A)

Nature Raw in Hoof and Claw Week at the

INDEX SPLENDORUM

This week, a remarkable trill of videos from a while back, though with a big trigger warning regarding the third one. The first, from fifteen years ago, a slow motion shot of an eagle owl descending from the point of view of its potential prey, part of a demonstration reel showing off the capacities of the then-new Photron SA-2 High Definition High Speed Camera, as captured by slowmo.co.uk. 

The second, ibexes scaling an impossibly steep dam, from the BBC’s “Forces of Nature” series with Brian Cox (Series 1, Episode 3). 

And the third—as we say, very strong stuff, not recommended for younger tykes or maybe even their especially sensitive elders—eagles pursuing and in some case nailing mountain goats, from a Spanish documentary from 2008, with strikingly dramatic music and exquisitely gruff Spanish narration in no need of translation (exact sourcing unknown, though we would welcome any details any of you could provide in the comments section).

HIGH DEFINITION OWL:

IBEXES SCALE VERTIGINOUS SHEER DAM TO LICK SALT:

EAGLES NAILING MOUNTAIN GOATS (disturbing stuff):

BONUS EAGLE-DEER FOOTAGE (no less disturbing):

* * *

Apropos of which, an entry from my

COMMONPLACE BOOK

From EAMON GRENNAN,
the last poem in his superb Still Life With Waterfall collection (2002):

Detail

I was watching a robin fly after a finch—the smaller bird
chirping with excitement, the bigger, its breast blazing, silent
in light-winged earnest chase—when, out of nowhere
over the chimneys and the shivering front gardens,
flashes a sparrowhawk headlong, a light brown burn
scorching the air from which it simply plucks
like a ripe fruit the stopped robin, whose two or three
cheeps of terminal surprise twinkle in the silence
closing over the empty street when the birds have gone
about their own business, and I began to understand
how a poem can happen: you have your eyes on a small
elusive detail, pursuing its music, when a terrible truth
strikes and your heart cries out, being carried off.

* * *

So, alright then, see you next week!