Last weekend I was working just outside my walkout basement door when I heard a lot of loud, excruciating screeches coming from my back yard. Walking around the corner, I spotted a Red-shouldered Hawk circling over the woodland. Hearing one of these hawks is not atypical; a pair has been nesting in my neighbor’s yard for the past couple of years. As I watched, the hawk circled for a few moments and then flew into the trees and landed on a nest. Within a few seconds, it hunkered down on the nest. Watching the nest for a few days, I am sure she is incubating some eggs right now. I don’t know if this is one of the hawks that used to nest at my neighbors, or if this might be one of their offspring nesting for the first time.
When I got a few minutes, I grabbed my camera and large telephoto lens and captured this image from my back deck:
I’m crossing my fingers that leaves don’t grow in and cover up my little “peek hole” :o)
Photographic Equipment Used:
- Canon 7D Mark II body
- Canon 500mm, f/4 lens + Canon 2x TC (equivalent to 1600mm focal length)
- Bogen 3021 tripod with Wemberly gimbal head
- ISO 200
- Aperture f/16 (to assure entire nest area, including the bird, would be in sharp focus)
- Shutter 1/125 sec.
Note: If you live near the Kansas City area, you are probably aware that in August we will experience a “Spectacle in the Sky”. We will be blessed with a rare total solar eclipse coming through our area. The daytime will suddenly turn black! Birds, dogs and other animals will go crazy! And people will likely be even crazier! In preparation for this rare event, I will be teaching a one-night class on April 18, that will teach you how and where to safely observe/photograph this wonderful, natural phenomenon. To learn more, click on this link: “2017 Photography Classes”