Back yard visitor

[Flew]

I was out shooting the BYB this morning when this guy flew into a tree in my neighbor's yard. I had seen him (or her) a few days ago, scouting out my feeders, and you can see the glare at the same target in these shots. Fortunately for all of my birdies and tree rats, they saw him coming and scattered rapidly. I'm not sure, but I think that it is a Sharp-shinned Hawk.

Taken with the D2Hs / 400 2.8 + 1.7 TC.

The landing:

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

The glare:

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Getting ready to swoop:

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Thanks for looking. :smile:

 

[Louis Champan]

Beautiful shots Frank.

Louie

 

[Timeout]

Wow, beautiful shots, gorgeous hawk! He does look like he means business ...

Frank, very nice processing, love the colors; perfect amount of saturation. :smile:

 

[andreasb]

Looks great, and excellent processing too, just right!

 

[cajun angel]

Glad I ain't hawk food! Beautiful shots Flew! Keep em comin!

 

[Flew]

Thanks for the kind comments folks. The processing on these was both easy and difficult. Easy because the images were very sharp, so I had to add only a minute amount of Smart Sharpening. I assume that this was because the bird was fairly distant (about 75-80 feet) so I got good DOF. Hard, because it landed in a shaded area and I was set for shooting in full sun, so it was underexposed by almost 1/2 stops. I used the U-Point feature in NX to lighten the subject without having to bring up the background too much.

 

[Gale]

Wow he an is impressive bird
Super shots

 

[hegdent]

He is one good looking hawk and nice captures too.
I am envious.
Harish

 

[hangin tree]

Rich Color, good detail and Excellent DOF

Did a Good job Frank

 

[DoorMan]

Excellent series Frank.

 

[dmwphoto]

Great examples of a good looking bird!

 

[Bubba]

WOW! Very nice indeed. Somewhat makes up for the hawks not paying us a visit Friday huh?

 

[raymond j barlow]

great shots Frank.. looks like a coopers to me, but I am not much of a birder.

 

[mike mac]

Nice shots what a pleasnt suprise...for you not the BYB's

 

[Bohdan]

Beautiful shots Frank. Beautiful bird!

 

[Flew]

Thanks again everybody. To say that I was excited would be an understatement.

great shots Frank.. looks like a coopers to me, but I am not much of a birder.

Ray,

The Sharp-shinned and Coopers are very, very similar, differing almost entirely only in size. The Sharp-shinned average length is about 11 inches, while the Coopers averages about 16.5 inches. At 75-80 feet, I couldn't tell for sure, but he sure looked on the small side to me. Could very well be a Coopers though. :smile:

 

[hillrg]

Nicely done Frank. Good things come to good people!

Just curious - how much of a crop?

 

[Flew]

Nicely done Frank. Good things come to good people!

Just curious - how much of a crop?

Thanks Rory. These are vertical crops from landscape shots, so I'd say they are probably about a 50-60% crop in the horizontal, and about 15-20% in the vertical. Not bad for a 4MP camera. :smile:

 

[hillrg]

Not bad for a 4MP camera. :smile:

Darn right.

 

[Glacier]

Hey Frank,

I believe it's a Cooper's Hawk judging by the round tail but I wouldn't bet a penny on it.

Either way you were able to capture some nice images of it!