Regular visitors to the blog will no doubt be aware of my attempts to photograph birds of prey. It's generally a very hit and miss affair. Today I was out with the long lens photographing the seagulls which were swooping low over the gardens.
While I was scanning the gardens to see where I could get the best angle, I noticed that a sparrowhawk had come in low to investigate. We seem to be on a regular circuit. Last week it briefly swooped down to our pond, and it glides overhead frequently. The camera was set up for gulls which meant the sparrowhawk shots were underexposed. For dark subjects against a bright background (i.e. a bird – other than a gull – against the sky) I tend to compensate for the contrast by setting a slight overexposure. I didn't have the foresight to change the settings when I saw the hawk, but with a bit post-processing I got some reasonable results.
I've added several more shots in the November Birds gallery, but here are a couple as a taster.
Camera note: all shots taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.
More seagull shots from today.
11 Comments
Thanks Vulpes!
Brendan, blimey I hadn't realized that native wildlife was in such a critical state in NZ. On which topic I did hear a wildlife podcast mention that a possum had recently hibernated for 367 days, breaking all records for the longest 40 winks. Mind you, this was in Australia where they live in rather less fear of being booted to the next state!
Great! :up:
Very nice gull shot too – wonderful transparent effect with its tail feathers.
Good shots :up: 🙂
I haven't got anything from our local birds of prey, but we just have 1 native owl, 1 native falcon, and 1 native hawk left…
Congrats! Great shots! :up:
Adele, yes I was pleased with gull shot. I got several more which I need to process but that was the first shot and (as ever) probably the best of the bunch.
Nikki writes:
That first shot is amazing! I love the light through the feathers.
Yay the first one is brilliant:D Sparrohawks have very nice patterns dont they:) You do very well at catching these magnificent birds Words.
Nikki, thanks! The tail feathers came out really well, but I like the little tufts at the top of the wing. I'd not really seen that before.
Mark, thanks. You don't see the hundreds I throw away though. I was particularly pleased with the first of the two sparowhawk shots above, because I almost never manage to get any of the upper wing.
:yes: