Australian( Macropus)Peregrine
Here is another one from my great trip to Australia.
This is my favorite image of the whole trip and one of my favorite peregrine images of all time. I have tried for many years to get a peregrine falcon up close, in good light, and in a full tucked up stoop. It is very hard because first off they are hauling butt even before they stoop, and then once they folder wings to stoop, they are usually dropping and picking up a dramatic amount of speed. This is usually the time they shoot out of your viewfinder like a rocket.
The story of this image is pretty funny.
I called an old-time BPN member, Ofer Levey in Sydney Australia to see if he had any tips for me in the way of bird spots. He was very cordial and gave me some spots to look for parrots and shorebirds. He also mentioned a peregrine nest site that he knew of. The baby's had fledged a few weeks earlier and he invited me to meet him there one afternoon.
I was pretty excited but when I called him he said he had problems and could not meet me. He did mention that he had a friend that was going to meet me there and show me the location on the cliffside. I met his friend in the parking lot and the weather was sunny but very very windy. Probably 25 to 40 mph. His friend was pretty bummed out as he has been there many times and figured we were going to get blown out due to the wind. I told him that in my area, and in my dealings with peregrines throughout my life, they love the wind and are usually more active in the wind. It's like free energy for them. Harriers are the same way.
So we hiked out to the beautiful cliffside location with the colorful southern ocean below and within a few minutes I saw the adult male flyby. Man is He is gorgeous!! 10 minutes later and it was an all out dog fight with four peregrines in the air in front of us all afternoon. It was unbelievable!! I shot 2500 frames that afternoon.
His friend could not believe it and he had been going there for years and it was the most active he is ever seen it. It was so windy that it was grabbing my lens hood and I could barely track the falcons so a few minutes into the shoot I took off my hood and threw it on the ground. Made it much better.
Needless to say I got lots of beautiful peregrine frames with different poses and even got ones with prey in their feet. I will share them with you in the near future. This is one of the eyeses, babies. She started her stoop in the perfect spot and I was lucky enough to track her for literally 2 seconds before she shot by me. I figured she was easily going 100mph!!
Macropus Peregrines are one of the most sought after in falconry for their beautiful full dark helmet and their unique stripped pattern on their chest. This Juve doesn't have the adult pattern yet but it sure had a dark head already. She will be awesome her second season. Also notice the Alula feathers extended to act as small ailerons for control as she burns through the sky. Hope you like her.
D5---850mm---f6.3---ss1/4000th---ISO800---Handheld@6:40pm---40% crop
Thanks as always for looking and for your input. I appreciate it.
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