Red-tailed Hawk with prey.

[Karl Egressy]

I went back today, had some more shots that I will post.
I learned from a birder today that the little animal is not a mouse but a Meadow Vole.
I'll post a close up having one in the beak, still alive, for ID purposes.
Here is one of the subsequent frames. Very mild graphic content on this one.
The leaves are there because the Hawk grabbed the little creature with all the leaves together.
Thanks for looking.

Canon 1D MIV
Canon 500 f4.0 L IS
Manual Setting
F 7.1
1/400 s
ISO 800

[Arno Ellmer]

This is superb ,Karl . I love the pose and the perfect HA ,as well as the complementary perch and the great bg.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Karl, once again, lovely light and colours, and just love the lookback pose. Good detail on the hawk, sharp, and I really like the curved perch. Always good to see a catch.

[Robert Holguin]

Superb shot!!
I really like the pose, great perch, wonderful background, and very nice soft warm light.
Well done.

[christopher galeski]

like it Karl,nice look back pose,sharp,good perch,nice BG,looks like it is having some salad with its meal,well done.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Beautiful really like the POS and the wind blown feathers. I also like the view of the pray and the dried leaves next to it

[Randy Stout]

Karl:

This is a beauty. The quality of the light, details, prey, and a flat out rocking perch, make it sing. Congrats on this fine capture.

Cheers

Randy

[Marina Scarr]

I like the pose and DOF better on this one, Karl, but the first one has the impact of the prey in his beak. The light sure was in your favor when you photographed this event.

[Daniel Cadieux]

That was an awesome opportunity you got here!! Excellent and thoughtful of the hawk to perch up from the ground to consume the meal Great techs, light, perch, BG. Way to go!

[dankearl]

Terrific find, Karl, the perch is killer (no pun intended), and hawk looks very good.

[Dan Busby]

It has all been said Karl. Great shot on all fronts!

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Fantastic Karl, great looking raptor, love the quality of light and smooth dark BG, well done.

[arash_hazeghi]

I love the pose and details, prey item takes it a step further.

Did you have to blur the BG in PS? It looks a bit paintary and unnatural to me but it could be my eyes.

[jack williamson]

This is beautiful! Great light and sharp, well composed and f7.1 was perfect. Well done!

[Jim Crosswell]

Excellent image Karl! I like the light, pose, prey, perch, IQ and BG.

[Melissa Groo]

Stunning image, Karl. Superb light and I love the colors of the perch and the way it arcs.

[gail bisson]

This series is stupendous Karl.
I just love the light and the perch.
You must have been dying to get home and see all these shots on the big screen!
Gail

[Karl Egressy]

I love the pose and details, prey item takes it a step further.

Did you have to blur the BG in PS? It looks a bit paintary and unnatural to me but it could be my eyes.

Thanks Arash.
I do remember using surface blur on the first one to get rid of banding.
I don't remeber using any blur on this one. I did remove some OOF branches and smoothened the spots ofter.
By the way I might have used some blur tool on my own memory; it has been blurry in recent years.

[Shawn Zierman]

Awesome image Karl!
Love the light quality and what a really great perch.
A 10 of 10 sir.

[David Salem]

Print it. Beautiful all the way around