UKH

Took this photo this morning. Looking into the sun, steam coming off the frosty grass. Could make out rainbow colours. Never seen this before. Thought it was quite cool. 

That's amazing, never seen anything quite like that. Thanks for sharing!

Bit of a thread hijack while we're here - you see Sparrowhawks regularly, so a question - have you ever seen a male successfully attack a Wood Pigeon, or any bird of similar size (i.e. bigger than the Sparrowhawk)? This afternoon I was watching one sitting in a tree in our local heavily wooded old cemetery; the pigeon was sitting about 5m from the Sparrowhawk, seemingly unconcerned, but when it took off the Sparrowhawk attacked instantly. A few feathers flew, but otherwise the pigeon seemed to have escaped unscathed.

Was quite a show, especially since I'd got to study the beautiful bird in detail through the binoculars for a couple of minutes before the attack. I'd be interested to hear of your experiences! 

I blame pixies.

No, not a male. But to be honest I think even females attacking pigeons is a newish thing? Blackbirds are about the max for a male.   But, why not try?  Impressive sighting though!

Must be. What’s weird is: most similar things you need the sun behind you (rainbows, Broken Spectres). 
 

BTW, all I want to do now is play some Pixies but cant. I would choose Doolittle, for a few reasons

Thanks for the feedback! My bird books say that the males usually attack birds up to Blackbird size, but I haven't been able to clarify that "usually". I know where the pair hang out (saw the female ripping a Chaffinch apart a week ago) but with all that dense foliage it's not easy to find them. Keep you informed! 

I was walking along the seafront in Sunderland years ago and it was the windiest I had ever experienced, but also really bright and sunny.  The sea was incredibly choppy but there were no big waves crashing against the prom walls just lots of small waves, loads of spray blowing around and on top of every small crest there was a small segment of rainbow.  They were everywhere, all over the surface of the water, constantly changing as waves collapsed and new ones started, and the spray was blown around

It's a bit hard to explain but it's the most weird pretty sight I've seen - annoyingly it was before phone cameras.  (but I bet if I had taken a picture it wouldn't have done it justice)

Rainbows are incredible

Cool effect. How zoomed-in is this photo? Are you looking towards the sun or away from it? (Towards, I think)

I find it interesting that it gives the impression of being straight-line fringes parallel to the ground, whereas usually these sorts of things would depend on angle relative to the sun (and so the individual colours would form circular arcs).

I was about 100 feet away, the sun was slightly to the left of the photo (not quite straight on).  And that’s the actual image, no altering. 

An explanation for this phenomena could still be due to refraction between air and water droplets, but with the added dimension of stratified temperatures caused by the sunlight in what appears to be a frosty woodland setting.

Warmer air is less dense and thinner than cooler air so light is able to travel faster. As light takes the fastest (as opposed to the shortest) path it will bend when it crosses a boundary.

Interesting picture.

then probably a diffraction phenomenon like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_iridescence

?

A 'rainbow mirage' is possibly the best way to describe it.

Good combo description as  mirages are similar, needing only a temperature difference but without the water droplets required for a rainbow.

It is cool!

yes I have seen something of that kind whilst walkng through my local park. I guess it was a sparrow hawk or a falcon but it brought a pigeon down in flight at my feet having landed squarely on top of it. the pigeon was unconcerned and the hawk made a quick exit once it realised the meal was too big and we were just feet away. quite a sight