Red-tailed Hawk

Monochrome Madness 2 46/52 Red-tailed Hawk

February 26, 2016February 25, 2016Posted in Birds, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Birds of Prey, Black and White Photography, Monochrome Madness2, PhotographyTagged Birding, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Black and White Photography, Monochrome Madness2, Red-tailed Hawk7 Comments

This is my entry for Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness 2 this week.

Another Red-tail from a birding expedition. We seem to have more Red-tails than any other Hawk. 🙂

Monochrome Madness 2 47 of 52 Red tailed Hawk

To see all the entries this week click here.

Nikon D700| Nikkor 200-500mm| Lexar Digital Film

More to come…

Red-tailed Hawk 2

February 16, 2016February 15, 2016Posted in Bird Photography, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Birds of Prey, Hawks, National Wildlife Refuge, National Wildlife Refuges in California, PhotographyTagged Birding, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Birds of Prey, Macro photography, Photography, Red-tailed Hawk, San Luis National Wildlife Refuge16 Comments

This Red-tail is from a couple of weeks back. My friend and I were birding in San Luis National Wildlife Refuge and nearing the end of one of the auto-routes when we spotted it high in the tree. I was driving and didn’t think I’d get a decent photograph of it because it was on the passenger side of the car/road, and climbing over the console and gear box wasn’t something I wanted to do.

Red-tail Hawk

We had the route nearly to ourselves so I thought I’d pull the car caddy-whompus across the road and shoot leaning into the passenger seat. I was able to get several images of it before another car came up and I had to move.

It is striking isn’t it with its white cap and that gaze?

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 200-500mm VR| Lexar Digital Film| PS CC 2015

Red-tail Hawk with Prey

February 5, 2016February 4, 2016Posted in Bird Photography, birding, Birds, Birds of North America, Birds of Prey, Hawks, PhotographyTagged Bird Photography, Birding, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Birds of Prey, Hawks, Red-tailed Hawk22 Comments

Warning!: Some may find these images too graphic!

While birding a couple of weeks ago in the Sacramento Valley we spotted this Red-tail Hawk having lunch on a levy about 25-30ft away from us. It spotted us too. It didn’t like the way we kept staring while it was trying to eat so…
Red tail Hawk with meal

…it picked up its meal…

Red-tailed Hawk with Prey in Flight

…and flew to a tree stump that offered a bit more privacy.

Red tail with prey on tree stump

We watched it eat for a couple of minutes then slowly drove away leaving it to enjoy its meal.

The second image with the Red-tail in flight has a bit of motion blur. I was hand-holding the lens and not used to its weight and think it was me being a wobbly rather than a slight pan. The eye is pretty sharp, and the blur gives it a sense of movement I like enough to save, and share it.

I was also racked out to 500mm and I didn’t frame up the shot giving the bird enough room to fly out of the frame, so I extended the canvas a bit then added in some of the background to give the bird some room to fly out of the frame, and fix the composition. There’s a learning curve to all new lenses; getting used to the weight, and bulkiness -it’s a chubby lens, and framing with it will be what I strive to master in the coming years.

I liked the lens so much I bought one right after I returned the rental lens.

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 200-500mm VR (rental lens)| Lexar Professional Digital Film| PS CC 2015

More to come…

Red-Tailed Hawk: light morph

November 20, 2012November 20, 2012Posted in Birds, California, Nature, Photography, WildlifeTagged Birds, D300s, National Wildlife Refuge, Nature, Nikkor, Nikon, Photography, Red-tailed Hawk, Wildlife4 Comments

Several friends and I went out to Central CA to a National Wildlife Refuge to see if any Sandhill Cranes or Snow Geese had arrived and photograph them.

While on the auto-tour we spotted this Red-tailed Hawk on a post. We had a good vantage point to photograph it so we all started framing and firing our cameras which spooked him.

It was just what we hoped for. We all got some really nice shots of him taking off, and flying low in the marsh grass.

Red-Tailed Hawk-Light Morph-Take Off! — Lift off!

Red Tailed Hawk light morph in flight — Downward flap

I needed help identifying this Red-tail. My National Geographic bird book isn’t very clear on the Light and Dark Morphs. Thanks to my friend Dali for I.D.ing it for me. Since then I’ve purchased a new bird guide-book: Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America. Between the two books I hope to be able to ID birds more easily.

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 80-200@ 200mm + Tamron 1.4x Teleconverter| f7.1| 1/2000sec| ISO 640| Manual Priority| Hand-held

Birding the Central Valley (naturalhistorywanderings.com)
Red-tailed Hawks – More from the Big Bend (bobzeller.wordpress.com)
Just when I thought I’d seen it all (randomthoughtsfrommidlife.wordpress.com)

Prendre la fuite!

January 19, 2012January 19, 2012Posted in Birds, California, Nature, Nikon, Photography, WildlifeTagged Birds of Prey, D700, Impressionism, Nature, Nikon, Photography, Red-tailed Hawk, WildlifeLeave a comment

On the way home from Monday’s birding and photography day this Red-tail landed in a small field by the highway to catch a ground rat or something. Theresa quickly pulled over, but before the car had stopped I started shooting, and the hawk hearing the car and tires crunching the gravel took flight!

In play back I thought the motion blur made a cool impressionist piece.