Near miss- Bird Strike
 

This is my first video post and my first near miss with a hawk on takeoff.

I was not very fast and rather low when I had to quickly maneuver. Thankfully the RV's are very controllable when you need them to be.

The video was captured in 1080p.

https://youtu.be/3Q6urgoVe5w

That was pretty close Paul. So close to the ground too. Nice move missing him.

bird strike
 

I fly at 300' 7 hours a day. They occur every 10 minutes. I never move the stick. It's amazing how agile they are. They love to wait until the last second and then tuck. The hawks are very curious. The only time I have had to move was for a eagle spread out. He never moved and looked at me completely annoyed that I was in his space. Wonderful.
Don

same experience with a bald eagle. they don't move. I came back around to verify. still held his/her airspace beautifully.

white-tailed hawk?
 

So, was that a white-tailed hawk? Did he have a bald head? Couldn't tell...but he didn't work too hard to evade.

A year ago, 3000 feet at cruise, saw a hawk 500 feet higher and off to right, as we safely passed, the hawk set up a dive, nearly matching our speed and flew in formation for a few seconds. He eventually ran out of energy and we pulled away.

Wow, that was close, I would have done the same as you did and move. Great job of missing it..

And he was probably left wondering how the heck you did that.

Northern Harrier would be my guess. The white rump patch is a distinctive field mark.

Near miss - Bird Strike
 

Last fall we were southbound near Mt. Shasta at 11,500 and am now realizing how close we came to a nasty bird strike. I had recently installed the Aerosun LED landing lights in both leading edges. I glimpsed about a dozen birds below me in all sorts of haphazard orientations with their wings partially folded. Interesting, I thought. Then, within seconds, I passed a nice formation of geese at exactly my altitude far enough off the wingtip to watch them for a couple seconds but close enough to realize how big those things really are. My assumption now, is that the first squadron of geese saw me long before I saw them and all decided to dive below me. Kind of gives me the cold sweats now that I think of it. I now leave those bright LED lights on Wig-Wag during all phases of flight. I also have a pair of goggles I'm going to keep in easy reach.

This past fall we had an experience with a Bald Eagle. We were climbing out through 2500' out of Rosecrans Airport (KSTJ) on the Missouri river. Just as I was going through 2500', without warning, there was a very large Bald Eagle about my 11 o'clock and I was climbing into it fast. There was no time at all to react as I passed by the bird. It was very close. I estimated maybe 25-30 feet at the most as I flew by him. There was no action I was able to take as everything happened in milliseconds. All I can say was we were very lucky. I just cannot imagine a 6' wingspan sized bird impacting the windscreen. The positive to the event was for that second I was as close as I have ever been to a beautiful bird like that. I just wish it were in different circumstances so I could have enjoyed the beauty of it.