Amazing moment bald eagle chases down and catches a starling in mid-air

Defenceless: The oblivious starling is grabbed in mid-air as the bald eagle swoops on its prey.Razor sharp: The starling seems to be completely unaware it is on the lunch menu as the bald eagle makes it attack at high speed.Zeroing in: The bald eagle spots its target as it flies through the air and begins to close the distance

Too late: The tiny starling is dwarfed by the massive bird of prey as it lifts its talons to grab its meal

This tiny starling didn't stand a chance after a hungry bald eagle chose it as a mid-air snack.

This incredible sequence of pictures shows the enormous bird of prey closing in on its target.

The defenceless starling flies on, apparently unaware of the eagle behind it.


But within seconds the eagle is so close its beak almost grazes the tail of the tiny bird.

In one swift moment, the hunter's razor-sharp claws have closed around its prey.

Photographer Rob Palmer captured these incredible pictures in Colorado, U.S.

The 56-year-old, from Littleton, said: 'I noticed a group of eagles sitting in the trees and then I spotted they were catching the starlings and blackbirds.

'It went on for a number of days. The starlings would launch out of the yard and into the air as one.
Two or three eagles would then start to pursue. It seemed as if the starlings had been hypnotised because they acted as if they were not being chased.

'Over ten days I saw at least 50 starlings getting caught and eaten by various eagles. It would happen anywhere from 100 to 500ft in the air.

'It was an awesome and inspiring thing to witness.

'As a photographer, you only dream of seeing wild instances like this and I took advantage of the situation. I have not witnessed anything like this since then.'


The bald eagle, native to North America, can grow up to 3ft long and has a wingspan of 8ft.

The bird of prey eats mostly fish, but is known to be an opportunistic feeder - eating anything from small mammals like rabbits to larger prey like the Great Blue Heron.

Its talons are so powerful it has even been known to carry off deer fawns weighing around 15 pounds.

Bald eagles can reach speeds of up to 43 miles per hour and are able to dive for fish at an incredible 99 miles per hour.

EU tells Google to warn cities before sending in Street View cameras

Concerns: Google was told by EU privacy regulators to warn cities where its Street View cameras would be taking pictures

Protest: Two men can be seen sitting quietly wearing scuba gear before spotting the Street View car and chasing after it in Bergen, Norway

Google has been told to warn people before it sends cameras out to take pictures for its controversial Street View maps.

The EU privacy regulators say refusal to give adequate notice could lead to legal action.

And the internet giant must shorten the time it keeps the original photographs from one year to six months.

The regulators also said it should avoid taking pictures ‘of a sensitive nature and those containing intimate details not normally observable by a passer-by’.

The crackdown follows numerous complaints that Street View is an invasion of privacy. It provoked a storm of controversy after it launched a year ago.

It remains to be seen what actions residents might take once they have been warned by Google that it plans to photograph their street.

But they may follow the example of residents in the Buckinghamshire village of Broughton who in April formed a human chain to stop a camera van.

They complained Google had no right to take pictures of their houses, calling it an ‘invasion of privacy’ and an ‘invitation for burglars to strike’.

Britain’s privacy watchdog has rejected calls to shut down the free online service, saying it carried a ‘small risk’ of privacy invasion but that removing Street View would be disproportionate.
Officials said Google had to erase raw footage of faces, house numbers, licence plates and individuals who have told authorities they do not want their information used in the service.

Earlier this month, two enraged Norwegians in scuba gear chased after the Street View vehicle as it took pictures in Bergen.

The company, based in Mountain View, U.S., must now give advance notice in the local or national press before it takes pictures, the EU said. The current policy of putting alerts on its website was not enough.

And its practice of keeping original unblurred pictures for a year in case of complaints was ‘disproportionate’, regulators said.

The system today indicated its vehicles would be in Nantes, France, as well as other nearby cities.

EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said Europe had ‘high standards for data protection’ and she expected that ‘all companies play according to the rules of the game’.

In a statement, Google said its need to retain Street View images for one year was 'legitimate and justified'.

Street View launched in the U.S. in 2007 and now adds photos of real-life street scenes to Google's maps of around 100 cities worldwide.

To placate privacy concerns, it uses special software to blur pictures of faces and car licence plates.

Google has been slow to expand the service in Europe after governments raised concerns that taking pictures of people in public places could break EU rules on personal privacy.

The data privacy warning comes a day after an Italian court convicted three Google executives - including privacy director Peter Fleischer - of privacy violations because they did not act quickly enough to remove an online video that showed sadistic teen bullies mocking and hitting an autistic boy.

Google said it would appeal the case, claiming it attacked freedom of speech on the internet.

It also faces an EU probe into allegations that it demotes rival sites in its search rankings.

Olympus E-P1 New digital camera

In the world of compact cameras, none stand mightier than those from the Micro Four Thirds segment. The Micro Four Thirds system, a standard created by Olympus and Panasonic, is the closest thing you'll get to a DSLR in a compact form factor as it not only allows the swapping of lenses, but also utilizes the an image sensor of the same size and specification.

The recently announced Olympus E-P1 is a stunning example of what the Micro Four Thirds system is capable of producing. Featuring timeless styling that's reminiscent of the ultra high-end Leicas,the E-P1 reportedly features 13MP RAW, JPEG, RAW+JPEG modes, 1280×720 720p video over 7 minutes, 640×480 video over 14 minutes, ISO 200-6400 and shutter speeds ranging from 60 sec - 1/4000 sec.

Key features

The E-P1 is, essentially, an Olympus E-620 (and by extension an E-30 in most respects) crowbarred into a compact, rangefinder-style body. Aside from the changes necessitated by the removal of the mirror and optical viewfinder - and a slight firmware upgrade (for new live view features, improved image processing) it is as fully fledged as any mid-range SLR. This is quite an achievement.

Interestingly Olympus hasn't just popped the sensor from the E-30 into a smaller body; they've been working hard under the hood too, and the 12.3 MP sensor has had a bit of an upgrade to increase resolution and sharpness - plus a few fixes that show they've been listening to reviewers and users (such as adding the option to apply Art Filters to raw files in-camera). The image quality boost been achieved by the use of a lighter low pass filter and a powerful new processor (the TruePic V), which offers better moiré removal and improved high ISO performance - plus of course the ability to capture HD movie clips. Otherwise the key feature list is pretty similar to Olympus's latest DLSR offerings.

• 12.3 Megapixel Live MOS Sensor
• Two new kit lenses (14-42mm M.Zuiko and 17mm F2.8 Pancake)
• TruePic V image processor
• 3.0" LCD screen (fixed, 230k dot resolution)
• HD movies (720p) with stereo sound
• Linear PCM sound recording
• 3.0 fps sequential shooting
• Built-in IS with max. 4 EV steps efficiency
• Optional Adapters for all ZUIKO DIGITAL & OM lenses
• Newly developed GUI for easier operation via Live Control
• Automatic recognition of common scenes possible with i-Auto
• Dual control dials
• Face Detection & Shadow Adjustment
• Art Filters, multi-aspect ratios, multi exposure
• In-camera raw conversion (including application of Art Filters)
• Small & stylish design

For more details click here