sparrowhawk

The sparrowhawk finally escaped the crows and sped off. I almost managed to track him. Or her. But not quite.

Sparrowhawk was another first (again, that newby advantage - even common birds are firsts). Not great focus here, but enough to show the action.

An early morning visitor in dark miserable light gave me a chance to test the high ISO performance on my Canon 5DMk111 ISO12,800 f5.6 1/400th sec

it was a new one in the garden.taken through bedroom window

in the garden another one new one. this was taken through bedroom window

Not the best quality photo but, in my defence, it was snowing and most unexpected. Sparrowhawks do use the feeding stations as a honey-trap and I've seen a couple of kills above them.

This male sparrowhawk was so close, I could only get half the bird in the frame!!

Got scared when it saw me,not even 1/1600 sec could freeze the wing movement.

This 2nd year male swooped into my trees yesterday, but missed the Starling he was after. He then perched on this branch that's about 4 foot above the ground. The Pigeons and Collys that spooked, assumed that the Sparrowhawk had gone (they don't stay for long if they miss), and drifted back into...

Caught this in my garden on a kill, spent 10 mins crawling on my belly in the conservatory to get the shot.

...you can't see the Starling unless you look closely. From a couple of weeks ago; through the window and the usual poor light. Oh, this is a 2nd year female, starting to moult into full adult plumage.

just sat on the football pitches awaiting breakfast but not a good shot bad light still I think it ok.

I am lucky enough to have a breeding pair not far from where I live in a local forest, they usually aren't accommodating for photos, but today seemed like they were willing to help me out.

Hi Peeps, Well I had intended to take a trip out to Rye Harbour today, but me man-flu has come back to bite me bum. So its two more from our recent Devon trip...y'all have a great weekend.

spotted sat in the young tree on the football pitches just over the garden fence looks like a juv to me by the white bits in the feathers

Got a few through window but the youngster seemed to be staying around so went outside to see if I could get a shot. He stayed for one before lifting off away from the camera.

Came home from work to be signaled to be quiet coming into house and camera was in hand. I guessed Linda wanted picture of something in back garden and sure enough young sparrowhawk on fence. This shot through window as it heard a bird alarm calling.

I was watching a distant aerial Buzzard through the D300 viewfinder, as something crossed my line of view. Tracked it down and got a couple of frames off before it flew off out of view.

Been watching this family for about a month now, theres three young fully fledged and making quite a noise, sometimes the parent will fly in and drop food to them to catch in the air, this time was lucky to get it land in front off me.

Been watching this family for about a month now, theres three young fully fledged and making quite a noise, sometimes the parent will fly in and drop food to them to catch in the air, this time was lucky to get it land in front off me.

Another pic of the 2cy female from Tuesday. I've blurred the prey a bit, as it looked "nasty"|=)| Still only 1/15th second shutter due to the poor light

Another pic of the 2cy female from Tuesday. She landed on the fence while I was hand-feeding the Pigeons yesterday evening; I instinctively turned away to protect the ones on my hand|=)| 1/20th second shutter for this, so still rubbish light.