Kestrel and Hawk

[Aloicious]

So today was my last day off from my night job, so I was living it up and did some more wildlife practice (are you getting sick of me posting wildlife stuff yet? heh). I just took a small drive around, was fairly disappointed with what I got, I saw quite a few raptors and other birds, but they were pretty easily scared off today, so I was kinda bummed, until I got home and took a closer look at a few, and was pleasantly suprised with some of them.

I ended up with a decent Prairie Falcon series:

#1 The perch:

#2 The Takeoff:

#3 The Flyaway:

#4 and another Rough Legged Hawk (I think, still learning the ID's on these, but with all the Raptors around here, I'm getting good practice in):

#5 And this one I kinda liked, which I call 'Why did the sparrow(?) cross the road?'

 

[Mully]

Two and three are great .... Nice flight images...... I like one but five not at all

 

[Parker219]

Thanks, I was going to post some hawk pics until I saw these! Now im deleting them off my computer.

Very nice. I would love to see the hawk at some different angles sometime from you if possible.

 

[Aloicious]

today's shoot kinda sucked, these were the only ones worth even working on so I don't have any other angles from today, and #5 was a stretch with the bad backlighting, and general busyness, but it kinda grew on me a little.

You should post up your pics though, I dig seeing everyone else's shots, I'm still new at wildlife and we're all learning here together...I do have a couple other hawks from my other post when I first got my 300mm lens earlier this week...lemme see if I can find it...

ah, here is the other post with some of my other hawk pics:
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/nature-wildlife/312832-trying-improve-cc-bird-id.html

 

[Aloicious]

So I've been told the Kestrel is actually a Prairie Falcon...my bad...

 

[SCraig]

Don't feel like you're alone in finding "Nuggets" when you get home. It happens to all of us bird shooters. Sometimes you just don't notice the good ones at first.

#1 through #3 are great. #4 I would have preferred on a tree limb instead of a wire, but we take what we are given

Utah is a beautiful area. I rode through southern Utah on a motorcycle trip in 2009 and it was absolutely gorgeous.

 

[WesternGuy]

Don't feel too bad about confusing the Prairie Falcon with a Kestrel, as they do have a bit of a close resemblance. Regardless, that first shot is just great. I would be tempted to crop a bit off the right to get rid of the "dark blob" in the out of focus background, or clone a bit of the softer background in its place. Definitely a wall hanger!

WesternGuy

P.S. Just one request, you would make it a lot easier for reviewers if you would number your images when you post them. That way, they do not have to keep flipping back and forth to make sure they have the correct one to comment on. Also makes it easier to get the correct image when referring to them in a review.

 

[ceeboy14]

Two and four are nice captures...I am discovering I really like to shoot birds and went to the bookstore last night and got a bird ID book.

 

[Aloicious]

Thanks guys,

Westernguy- went back and numbered them, I'll try to remember that next time, I'm used to only posting 1 or 2

Ceeboy, what book did you end up getting? I'll need to get a good one too

 

[jrasche2003]

Well maybe it's because I am new to everything, but I love them all and am sooooo jealous. I hope someday I would be as lucky and talented to be able to capture such wonderful photos of raptors! I love them-but I am not critical since I am still learning.. everything looks good to me. I had posted a picture of a squirrel in which people said it was underexposed, but I loved it. Well after looking at photos online of the same type of squirrel, I realized that everyone was right! I have alot to learn! Anyway.. I love them good job!

 

[Radical]

Love two and three.

 

[jrasche2003]

I don't know if anyone noticed, but it appears that on the second photo that this raptor must have just got done feeding, since I see a feather on it's talon, and small feathers midair.... pretty neat...