Whistling Kite's dilemma

[John Cooper]

Following on from yesterday's post - The Black Falcon is an aggressive raptor but I'm sure there was no ill intent when it landed on the kit's foot pinning it to the perch with its powerful talons.
The kite was just too busy feeding and didn't observe the falcon's approach until it was too late!

The kite was well and truly anchored and I now had a captive subject and was able to readjust my zoom and record the activity from the initial violent struggle through to the moment when the kite succumed to the inevitable and drooped its wings and dropped its head between its legs. This lasted for about 4-5mins until the falcon shifted its weight during its feeding and the kite made its escape with little injury other then to its pride :w3

EOS 7D, 100-400mm lens, 1/1600 sec F8, ISO 800, natural light, tripod, hide.

[Ian Wilson]

Sensational action you have captured here John. There are a lot of highlights and I am wondering if the global brightness needs to be pulled back a little and I am thinking that the tree branch on the right could be removed. Good work. Regards, Ian

[Randy Stout]

John:

Great story! Must have been something to watch. One time when a video clip would have been very interesting.

Agree with Ian about the brightness. I ran a 15% luminosity blend mode layer on it in PS, which knocked down the highlights, and thought it presented well. Worth a look

Slightly tight at the top, and yes, I could see a version with a bit of pruning on the branches done, but the bones are very fine indeed.

Cheers

Randy

[William Dickson]

Great image John I bet you enjoyed capturing this pair :S3: Well done

[arash_hazeghi]

love the action here, the eye contact from both is great. the IQ is not great, the details look coarse and the contrast seems quite high, def. worth reprocessing

[MohsenVahedipour]

Excellent interaction with nice eye contact. I like the composition as it is. TFS


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[Daniel Cadieux]

Quite the situation you witnessed here. I love the interaction and I especially like the near wing. Yes to toning down the whites though...that would make a big difference in the image's presentation. What is the piece of meat...were the raptors baited? Not against it at all, just being curious.

[mohammad reza shahab]

I love the interaction,Excellent eye contact,composition and BG.

[David Salem]

Very cool John. The interaction here is great and I like that the Black Falcon is sharp on this one. I cant believe that the Kite was stuck under the falcons "meat hook" for that long. Must have been something to see. Toning down the highlights a bit will help and adding a bit of black looks good too. Well captured