Imprints on my window

[Actinia]

Our garden is frequented by, amongst other birds, Wood Pigeons and Collared Doves. Occasionally the local Sparrowhawks make forays into our garden after them. Even more occasionally this has resulted in either the prey or the predator or both crashing into our window. These two shots are of the result of that. In both cases all the birds flew off uninjured.

#1 is an imprint of a Wood Pigeon on the glass of the patio door.

#2 is an imprint of a Sparrowhawk that chased a Collared Dove . The Collared Dove ducked, but the Sparrowhawk hit the same window as before, but lower down.

In the case of the Pigeon, you can see the imprint of the breast and the wings on either side. The Sparrowhawk had obviously veered so that the left wing was vertical, and the right one inclined down.

The imprints come from the powderdown, which is finely fragmented feathers that birds use as a sort of talc for grooming.

I think that these are interesting images in their own right, but photographically not very good. They were, after all, grabbed shots, taken with a Panasonic DMC-FZ7, before I got my DSLR.

I have tried to enhance and improve these in post-processing, but without a great deal of success. Does anyone have any suggestions for enhancement?

 

[baturn]

I like it. It's a whole new genre of wildlife photography.

 

[JustJazzie]

These certainly are very interesting shots!!

 

[ronlane]

Ouch, You shouldn't use windex. It's a flying hazard.