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Sparrowhawk with Wood Pigeon
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Just read the post on the buzzard and thought I’d stick this up as it’s kinda related and probably my favourite photo taken to date. I spotted the sparrowhawk in the middle of a field while driving by, half way between Kilcoole and Newcastle, Co. Wicklow. I ended up on the side of the road on my belly shooting “sniper style” between the planks of a fence! The sparrowhawk then dragged the unfortunate pigeon straight towards me, I couldn’t believe my luck. I was so taken by the hawk I didn’t take my eye from the camera in time and missed the reason for the hawks hasty retreat towards the edge of the field and me – a Buzzard swooping in to try to rob it’s dinner! I took a good few shots but a lot had lens shake. I know the background detracts from the bird as it’s the same colour as the sparrowhawk (good camouflage?) and also that its too in focus but it was very close to the bird and the lens was wide open. (350D, 300mm + 1.4 extender, f/5.6)
Interested in other peoples opinions, thanks.
great capture and story-
A tiny bit more sharpening could help the separation from the backround.Its an amazing length you were working at,
considering the crop factor,
and you might have expected the backround to be thrown a little further out of focus-
but that effect isn’t helped much by the small formats.Well spotted too-
j
Brilliant shot!! Maybe try a bit of guassian blur for the background in PS. Certainly a shot i would be very proud of, its job enough to get a shot of a sparrow hawk, but to one one of this quality with a kill is fantastic. I love the fact that you were at eye level with it. Well done.
Wow Great Shot! I have been trying to get a picture of a Sparrow Hawk
for ages, I dont know how I havent crashed the car as I am scanning the
skies as I drive :) You have probably swerved to avoid me on many
occasions :) There is a resident Sparrow Hawk down around Charlesland
the scrub land at the back of Jackie Skellys I watch it as I am puffing away on
the treadmill and as soon as I get outside he is GONE. Anyway……..Fantastic
shot well done.Hey Shutterbug, I havn’t seen a Sparrow Hawk there but have seen a Kestrel on many occasions, just wondering if this is what you are looking at. This guy hovers over a certain spot far a while, then moves to another part of the scrubland and does another hover before moving off. Last year there were 2 of them at one stage at the same time. In fact I saw one this morning up beside the new apartments getting built. You sound just like me regarding the driving, it’s amazing what you see when you are prepared to look. I’ve really noticed this since takng up photography.
Incredible photo. You’re very hard on yourself if you can be critical about this one.
You’d think a woodpigeon was big for a sparrowhawk to take. I’ve heard that mistle thrushes can fight them off, and your average WP looks substantially bigger than a mistle thrush.
Goosebanker wrote:
Hey Shutterbug, I havn’t seen a Sparrow Hawk there but have seen a Kestrel on many occasions,
That is probably it, :oops: dont know my sparrow hawks from my kestrels, I always thought kestrels were very rare?
I shall spend some time down there soon.Aside from all the ‘luck’ of actually getting this shot, bloody fantastic photograph.
Definitely one to be proud of.Rob.
You know, that’s the sort of photo that might be suitable for a nature magainze or book.
It’s the second Sparrowhawk/pidgeon photo I’ve seen in a few days.
I think Kestrels are one of the more common BOP in Ireland. When you see one hunting, yuo can’t mistake it … perfect hover in mid air with points on the middle front of the wings protruding and tail splayed out.
Thanks for the comments everyone. As a result I applied a bit of gaussian blur to the background and lightened it a bit and it brought the bird out a little better. (I probably need a better monitor and/or a bit of profiling but it looks allright).
Re: PeteTheBloke “You’d think a woodpigeon was big for a sparrowhawk to take.” – Yeah I know, when you see it in the pic the pigeon is bigger than the hawk but it looked fantastic when it managed to drag the pigeon about 50 metres across the field to the ditch. (see below)
Not putting this up for C&C, I know the head isn’t quite sharp and the bird isn’t frame filling but I thought I’d just stick it up out of interest and because I like the movement in the wings and flying feathers.
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