The ASSASSIN

[Jonathan Ashton]

Tripod, Canon 7D Canon 100-400L ISO 1000 1/160 sec f5.6
I was about to sit down to watch TV and my wife Pam said, "quick get your camera - NOW", I did but had the macro lens on, I took a few images through glass and then I risked changing the lens. After this I risked opening the patio door, the scene of carnage was just in front of my hide, roughly six/seven yards from where I was in the house, I suspect the sparrowhawk had taken the woodpigeon off the roof of the hide. I don't know how long she had been eating but I stayed photographing for 20 min. The light had gone, I was starting at ISO 800 and soon went up to 2000. I had very limited opportunity to vary the shooting angle because I didn't want to spook the sparrowhawk. Within about six feet of the hawk there was a male blackbird and he was screaming merry **** at the hawk, feathers were flying and the shutter was firing! Not the best quality but hope you like it.
All C&C welcome.

[Girish Prahalad]

wonderful capture! the quality looks good to me.
the spread out feathers on the lawn is dramatic & conveys the story very well.

[vishaljadhav]

Lovely moment, the feathers all over makes it very dramatic, the open beak adds a lot to the image

[adrian dancy]

Excellent work here. I think the hawk is just laying a new carpet for the garden:)

[Ashley Cohen]

Well caught, always amazing to see a sparrowhawk with prey!

[Richard Stern]

A great story, and the image complements it well, putting the finishing touches to the account. In an ideal world it would have been nice to have got a bit more room at the bottom, but you did really well to get a shot as good as you did. I don't otherwise see anything wrong with the quality.

Richard

[Robert Holguin]

Terrific shot!!!
I really like the pose, the open beak, and all those feathers are the icing on the cake.
IQ looks good to me.
Well done.

[mohammad reza shahab]

Amazing moment ! Excellent pose,IQ and nice colors.

[David Salem]

Great looking shot of this little Accipiter. I like the open mouth and the pose she gave you. IQ looks good over here too. Not sure if the tree helps the image though. Well done.

[PhilCook]

I don't see too much wrong with this one, these moments are all too often too fleeting so I think you've done the best possible at the time with available light and composition factors. Liking the vivid eye and open beak and overall ....not so keen on the backdrop branches and the oof leaf on the left stance on the bird, but nothing a tighter crop couldn't cure as below

[Ishmeet Sahni]

A great moment to capture, wish you had gotten to know a little earlier..... the strewn feathers, the open beak and the eye contact add a lot to the image.

[Petros Petrou]

It is always nice to see images like this. The bird pose is great with the open bill and I like the "feather carpet". IQ is fine for me. TFS

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thank you very much everyone for the comments. Phil I did wonder about cropping, I left the tree in to show the location, there was a very tight area in which I could capture the image. I think your version looks fine, my other images are increasingly higher ISO, not too sure if they will stand a crop - but I will take a second look.

[shane shacaluga]

A few of my falconry friends have been spotting sparrowhawks in their UK gardens recently too

Lovely scene of this predator at work

TFS