The video was as unreadable as I expected -- you could tell it was a hawk and it looked like there might be a white stripe on its tail, but that was about it. Even so, I was pleased to have a record of the sighting, so I uploaded it to Youtube.
Today, I was nosing around Youtube and I saw they have some video editing tools, including the ability to slow down a video. So I slowed down my hawk video and then trimmed the beginning part where it was just sitting. Later I went back and increased the "fill light" and contrast settings on the slow-motion version. The result is impressive considering what I started with. I had no idea there was that much information in the original video. Below are the three videos in the order that I made them. This makes me think it would be fun to have a really good video camera and some quality editing software. It also makes me realize that it's not so far fetched when the tech person in some cop show enhances a reflected image and gets a recognizable face or a license plate number.
Here's the original:
Here's the slow motion version:
And here's the slow motion version with the light fill and contrast upped a bit:
