Spotted Harrier (Circus assimilis)

[Charlie Schwencke]

Just back from a camping trip in the Terrick Terrick NP, weather was great and got on to some great birds...

This guy was spotted whilst we where driving between the grassland paddocks I was able to drive up quite close and shoot from out the drivers side window resting lens on the side mirror.

Name:Spotted Harrier (Circus assimilis)
Location:Terrick Terrick NP, 10/06/13
Gear: Pentax K-30 and Sigma 150-500mm @ F7.1 1/1000 ISO320, 370mm.
PP:ACR/CS5, shadows, Levels, selective colour, resize and sharpen for web FF.

All comments welcome.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8254/9006147020_77a36bd763_b.jpg

[PhilCook]

Must say I am very envious of this one Charlie, a very rare occurrence to get anywhere near to these birds for a shot, the birding gods must of been smiling upon you...done well for sure. I can see I'm going to have to take a trip to Mt Terrick again one day if these are around.

Liking the sleepy, yet sinister looking eyes in this and the color is extra nice, particularly with the blue sky backdrop, I would be inclined to crop a little more from the top, could also go well as a portrait aspect image

[Marina Scarr]

Lovely raptor, nice details, and the rusted barbed wire works well as a perch here. I would like to see this as more of a conventional horizontal frame.

[Diane Miller]

Beautiful! Amazing how they can balance on one leg like that, on such a tenuous-looking perch.

There is enough interest on the right, especially with that piece of grass, to add a little more on the left, if you have it, to make a more conventional landscape-format. I agree that a ittle off the top would be good.

I like the small amount of dry grass at the bottom -- it grounds it.

[Satish Ranadive]

Charlie,
Excellent image of harrier,somewhat looks like Serpent crested Eagle,in India.
Beautiful pose,nice colors and details.Although horizontal composition looks good,personally I will go for vertical composition for this pose.
I hope you are not against cloning,I have modified the image.I hope you will like it.

129474

Regards,
Satish.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I am really digging the stray feather...how cool! Sounds to me like you were fortunate to get close to this species, so good job on making the most of the opportunity.. I agree with Marina about the crop, and Staish's crop looks good too (but I'd remove the thin pale edge at bottom on that one).