I got out early this a.m. to feed the bulls and change my irrigation water, bringing my camera along to take advantage of the early fall light. A few good photographs to draw upon this coming week for the blog. The Sparrow Hawks were busy this morning, but tricky photographing. Automatic focus is a must as I tried to capture this one in hover mode with my 400 mm lens. I couldn’t help but think of our constant commenter and falconer, Richard, as I was photographing, and include these enlarged (and slightly fuzzy) photos for him.
Weekly Photo Challenge (1): “Inspiration”
drycrikjournal 
Would one of these be found in Florida?
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Year round. Here’s a link: Kestrel
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Thank you, that was very interesting.
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Great photos John. Curious as to what 400mm lens you are using? Does it have stabilization?
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A Canon 100-400 mm f 1.4 -5.6 IS on the 5D with more capabilities than I can comprehend.
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I have a family of white kites in one of my trees and they are very hard to photograph. When I see them hovering I never have my camera. They seem to know. But they are a wonderful bird.
I love your kestrels.
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First you have to find them in your lens, and by that time…
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Shite… that’s nice!! I was sporting a 300 mil on Saturday and got 2 buzzards in a tangle. I hope it will enlarge as well as your photos!! Great shots!! 😉
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Thank you John. It’s amazing that you can even catch it in a viewfinder. Looks like you had a pretty fast shutter speed. Now you have to see if you can catch it dropping in on a grasshopper or a mouse.
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1/500th. I’ve got several blurs to go with these two, but a lot easier to catch a hover than keep up with a dive. Glad you liked them.
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We have some kestrels near us, but I haven’t managed to get a shot like that. Incredible. I take them when they are perched on a ledge or soaring through the sky. Wonderful birds to watch but difficult to photograph, my hat goes off to you.
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Thanks, Jim. You know the drill: you have to take a lot of photos to make one work. Fortunately, I had two kestrels working around me.
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Luckily digital allows us to take a lot of photos. It is still a terrific shot.
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