Hawk takeoff

This series of photos shows a red-tailed hawk taking off from its perch. The photos aren’t as sharp as I’d like them to be, but I think they’re interesting.

They’re presented in the order in which they were shot. It looks very much as if the order is backwards, and that the hawk is actually landing. In fact, the sequence is correct: the hawk’s takeoff in this case looked a lot like a landing in reverse, with the bird leaping up into the air, flapping its wings to gain height, before turning in mid-air and soaring away.