Author Topic: Brief visit of a prey bird (Read 507 times)

rogerml · « **on:** June 10, 2011, 03:55:39 AM »

Awoke early this morning, - more or less a quarter to six o'clock. Brewing myself a coffee, I got aware of some noise in the soi outside, and got aware of panicking doves (yes, we have a small colony of those in our village here) flying around, taking shelter on house roofs. After a while, I could understand the reason. A hawk were walking in the middle of the soi. Mind you. at this time in the morning, there's no activity, other than birds and whatever. Sun is just above horizon, - and village guards are yet to start up their morning routine. I went for my Canon 1D, and attached a EF 300mm/f4L IS to it. But, as you would guess, the hawk, of course, noticed that my window had open a tad to give the lens a chance to to sight her (yes, found out later that it most likely were a female bird), and retreaded the the roof of my neighbor house, some 25-30 yards away from mu position.

Well, to make the history short: I could get a few shots at her, - bur all of a sudden the bird didn't want to be a model anymore, and lifted away for the nearby street light post lamp, - still not turned off by the photo cell that manages the on-off of it. However, - just giving me the time for a couple of exposures, before lifting off to other hunting fields. I didntn't even found time to change the cameras ISO settings on the camera, from the initial positioning of the bird, to the next one, as you may observe, (no blue skies, just totally blank.

From google, I found out that the birds personalia could be named as: Eurasian Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus), - distinguished by the 'cut off' tail feathers (as opposite to 'rounded' for 'Coopers Hawk'). The female is quite larger than the male counterpart. I do believe I'm correct in the specie art, here, - but could, of course, be wrong, not being a specialist at all of these kind of birds, so, please correct me if you know otherwise). (There are more than fifty different species of hawks, I found out).

I don't believe the photo is any good, - but maybe, - at the best, - a little rare for the one who is not a 'early morning bird', - as I tend to be, at times.

Hope you enjoy the posting, anyhow, - and thanks for looking in!

Details

EOS 1Dmk3 - EF 300mm/f4 L IS - 1/4000 - f4.5 - ISO640

Details

EOS 1Dmk3 - EF 300mm/f4 L IS - 1/320 - f4.5 - ISO640

Ray · « **Reply #1 on:** June 10, 2011, 04:22:46 AM »

You are one lucky person to have been visited today by this bird of prey but those doves are less fortunate however. Yes I have read over it my mistake as you have found it yourself allready as this indeed seems to be a (young) Sparrowhawk.

p.s.
These photo's are good enough to enjoy as they are very pleasureable to watch

Em5 Pete · « **Reply #2 on:** June 10, 2011, 06:28:22 AM »

A nice morning catch

voyager · « **Reply #3 on:** June 10, 2011, 10:30:09 AM »

Wow, very pretty. It's always so nice when we get stories to accompany our photos so we can live vicariously through your experience.

Brief visit of a prey bird