Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Take Off

On a recent birding expedition to view Sandhill Cranes I spotted a beautiful Redtailed Hawk.
















He was sitting on the cross arm of a power pole.  He looked like a rufous dark morph and was very striking when in flight.  Unfortunately, I didn't capture the underparts in these images but my impression was they were reddish.

As you might expect, he didn't care for my attention.










Get ready
Go!
And he's off
I say "he" but it well might have been female for it seemed to be quite large.
Off it soared.  I had a hard time keeping it in my view.  My new 400 mm is not image stabilized and the bird was so close that it filled much of my image.  All that said, I was mostly pleased with this series.
Isn't it a beautiful bird?

You can find more birds at World Bird Wednesday, hosed for us by Springman.

36 comments:

Sylvia K said...

A terrific series and as always, I love the detail you manage to capture! There is definitely a tad of annoyance in his/her beautiful eye! Love to see him in flight!

Sylvia

John @ Beans and I on the Loose said...

Wonderful images which I was doubley impressed when I read you did these with a 400mm, hand held? Well done.

Maude Lynn said...

Beautiful! I love these!

theconstantwalker said...

Wow! Martha what a beautiful bird to see.. never mind capture fantastic images of..
Many thanks for sharing..

FAB said...

Thanks for sharing this lovely series.

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

It is beautiful! And so are your photos.

eileeninmd said...

Wonderful series on your Redtailed hawk!

mick said...

All nice photos but that first one is exceptional!

Anonymous said...

It is a beautiful bird and you photographed it well!

Barb said...

Yes, beautiful indeed! Wow! 400mm - I can hardly hold my 200mm still.

Gaelyn said...

You held steady for these shots. They are Awesome!

I want to camera with the big guns/lens. But I better get stabilization too.

Paulie said...

Oh yes! You done good!!!! It is awesome!

Brian King said...

The catch light in the eye in that first photo is spot on! Great shot! So I guess you're enjoying your new lens?

joo said...

Great post Martha!

Mary Howell Cromer said...

A beautiful bird capture.
We went to view the Sandhill Cranes at Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge a week ago. Where did you all go to view them? Aren't they just amazing birds!!!

Liz said...

Great images Martha!! Excellent action shots of a majestic bird. Brilliantly captured with a non image stabilised 400mm lens. I always go hand held when I am bird watching with my 55-250mm on full zoom. I would love a 400mm!!

TexWisGirl said...

oh, look at that!!!

Lisabella Russo said...

Oh wow! How majestic this bird is and how compelling your images are...

Arija said...

What a beauty he/she is Martha. That red tail really comes to the fore in the beautiful flight shot.

Kenneth Cole Schneider said...

Very nice bird indeed, Martha. The image quality is excellent even without IS.

tiptoethruphylsgarden.blogspot.com said...

I love this bird.You got great pictures of him too!I can`t get close enough to ours here in the woods to get a good shot,phyllis

Hilke Breder said...

Wonderful sequence!

Carole said...

Glorious photos with such lovely detail. Whenever we go to see the cranes, seeing all the raptors and many other species is an added pleasure. I hope to get out there soon.

Judy said...

Great series of the take-off!! And a beautiful bird!!

Springman said...

We could talk for hours about 400mm
lenses. What a great problem to have, getting to close. As far as IS goes, achieve a shutter speed over 1/1200 and it's pretty useless anyway or at least unnecessary. 1/1600 even better. Excellent pictures, enjoy that lens!

CameraCruise said...

Wow, great series of the beautiful hawk, love it!

Anonymous said...

So gorgeous...

Katney said...

gorgeous!

Anonymous said...

Fantastic shots of that beautiful hawk!

Penny said...

What a perfect timing. You did capture it well! Love the 1st photo.

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Photography Backdrops

Laura said...

such a majestic visitor!

Pat Ulrich said...

Terrific captures!

Anonymous said...

Love, love the first one!
He is beautiful!

NatureFootstep said...

gorgeous shots! You are so lucky. Thanks for sharing :)

Diane AZ said...

Amazing shots, Martha! I love the bird's beautiful face in the first one and the fanned out wing tips and tail feathers in the last one.

Kathie Brown said...

Gorgeous!