During my kayak outings over the past few mornings, I have consistently run into a pair of juvenile hawks, Red-shouldered Hawks (Buteo lineatus) I believe (if I’m wrong on the ID, please let me know). Their regular activity has been for one of the hawks to fly into a dead tree, closely followed by the second one. With the second one arriving, the first one always launches and flies away … with the second one not far behind! They both are skittish, so capturing images of them have been a bit difficult. But on my last outing, I was surprised to see one fly over and into a nearby dead tree. I was able to capture a few images as this one flew overhead and landed into the tree:
I’d really love this next shot if only the head was visible! As with most sports being “a game of inches”, nature photography is “a game of fractions of seconds”! One common misconception is that a camera with the ability to shoot up to 10 frames per second will allow you to capture all the great action shots. In reality, 10 frames per second equals one shot every 1/10 second. Trust me, there is a whole lot of time between those 1/10 second intervals!
Photographic Equipment Used:
- Canon 5D Mark 3 body
- Canon EF100mm-400mm, f/4.5-f/5.6 IS lens + Canon 1.4x TC, shot at 560 mm
- Handheld from a kayak, with IS “On”
- ISO 400
- Aperture f/8
- Shutter 1/800 sec. to 1/1000 sec.