Kestrel with Savannah Sparrow

[David Salem]

I had a great experience a few years ago when I had invited Doug Brown over for the first time to shoot raptors with me. This was the first year that Lady Kestrel had taken up residency at my location and I had just put a few perches out that were attached to some ugly electrical boxes that she was using as her hunting perches.
Things were going great that afternoon and Doug was patting me on the back telling me how awesome it was being this close to her and gloating at how great his pictures looked when out of the corner of my eye I saw a Musket fly by with something in it's feet. A Musket is the term for a male Sharp-shinned Hawk. When we looked back at lady kestrel, she was off and giving chase and was gaining on the Musket. In a few seconds she over took the sharpie and bound to him in mid air and they fell to the other side of the bank out of view. We were blown away and elated that we had just witnessed this when all of a sudden lady kestrel came flying back to the perch we were set up on with the sparrow that she just robbed from the musket! OMG! As if the awesome shoot could have gotten any better!!
Needless to say we shot hundreds of frames of her eating the savannah in front of us and she even got full and cached the remainder of the uneaten sparrow in the bushes in front of us.
I could't believe that we had gotten all of it, and Doug was completely blown away. Needless to say, I have never seen anything like this again!
These first few frames were shot in a bit of side light until our heart rates dropped enough to think about repositioning the truck :)

1DMkIV---700mm---f6.3---ss1/2000---ISO800---HH from truck@3:45pm---25% crop

Thanks as always for looking and for your input. I appreciate it.

David

[Gerald Kelberg]

Great image; great story!
Excellent details in both birds. The Kestrel is really beautiful.
Thanks for sharing.
Gerald

[David Salem]

Thanks Gerald.

[Nikhil Patwardhan]

The story is something akin to what they show on NatGeo, loved it :-) The moment is nicely captured, especially considering it was hand held. I wonder if this would have more impact in a vertical orientation, so that the bird and the perch form a "T".

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi David - Great detail in both the story and the image. Congrats on the sighting and the capture!

TFS,
Rachel

[keith mitchell]

Love the story David bet that won't happen many times in your life, both birds look great even with the head missing,looking at your images always inspires me.

Keith.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi David, you are just blessed with Raptor sightings, and this is simply stunning. Repositioning your truck to achieve better lighting worked out well in this, and love the eye contact. Excellent detail and sharpness throughout, and the poor Savannah adds to the incredible story. Well captured.

[David Salem]

Thanks for the comments everyone. I appreciate it.

Nikhil, Not sure that a vertical would work well here due to the side profile and the way her tail is sticking out. I also don't have any more perch left.

Stuart, this is shot before I repositioned my truck. I will post some soon with a better light angel but I did like the effect the side lighting had on this frame.

Thanks again.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Fantastic image with a great story to go with it. Love the HA, the behaviour & BG.

[Walker Noe]

KILLER details and awesome light and behavior. Really great shot.

TFS
Walker

[Jonathan Ashton]

Love the storyline beautiful light and details a really excellent shot.

[William Dickson]

Wow, what a story and a capture. Probably never to be seen again, and you got it captured. Fantastic details and sharpness, infact its all fantastic. Well done David, and thanks for sharing this with us

[arash_hazeghi]

oh man, this frame is inspirational

[Bill Dix]

Moment of a lifetime, and you captured it supremely. Great detail, pose and comp, and a story line to go with it. Thanks for sharing this fabulous scene.

[David Salem]

Thanks again for the comments everyone. I appreciate it.

[sasan nejadi]

Fantastic image with a great story to go with it and exellent detail ... thanks for sharing

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Awesome story and killer image Dave. I can imagine your excitement witnessing and photographing this. Another big winner from your camera. TFS!

[Lorant Voros]

Nice story indeed and literally a killer frame:). Hats off!

[Kirk Benson]

This is ridiculously good David, what a thrilling encounter... it's always such a rush when something special happens isn't it? Masterful work and presentation... I just keep staring at it.

[David Salem]

Thanks everyone. I really appreciate the comments

[Binu John]

Another great frame, David! Excellent exposure, perch, details and BG and a great story. Well done and TFS.

[Doug Brown]

One of the more incredible moments I've ever witnessed as a bird photographer! Expertly captured David!