Hawks in Flight

[Trojansoc]

This morning, a pair of red-shouldered hawks found themselves going head to head with a flock of about 20-25 crows for control of a stand of pines about a hundred yards behind my house.

Too bad I couldn't post a recording of the fight, because it was a "more than loud" 15-20 minutes.



Because they were taken at a great distance, these are all nearly 100% crops, taken with a K10d, Phoenix 100-400mm, Av mode at f9.0. ISO was at 1000 because of dreary skies. EV was +1.3 shooting nearly straight up. The adult above was trying to rescue a juvenile, trapped by the crows in the upper reaches of the pine tree. He occasionally would slip out.



Got a really good look at just how fast a hawk could fly during this engagement, which at times was remarkably like a WWI dogfight.



There was no gentle soaring here. It was "pedal to the metal" all the way.



This one has some motion blur in it, but it serves to empasize just how fast the hawk was flying.



Fascinating morning.I would have liked to have gotten closer, but wading through about a 50 yard patch of briars in sandals just didn't seem like a good idea, though I did make it through the first 20 or so before "reevaluating the situation."

Paul

[NonEntity1]

Trojansoc wrote:

Sounds like a pretty neat event Paul, while I have seen smaller birds chasing larger ones I have never seen anything as interesting as what you describe.


This one has some motion blur in it, but it serves to empasize just how fast the hawk was flying.

That is why I liked that one best.



Fascinating morning.I would have liked to have gotten closer, but wading through about a 50 yard patch of briars in sandals just didn't seem like a good idea, though I did make it through the first 20 or so before "reevaluating the situation."

You are an artist now! You have to learn to sacrifice and suffer for your art :-)!

Tim

[2many]

great captures, Who won?

[Trojansoc]

2many wrote:

great captures, Who won?

I would have liked to have reported on a Hawks victory, but I had to listen to those #*&(*&amp#&^(* crows loudly bragging the rest of the day.