I shot this in December on the Hillsborough River. This Hawk was busily lunching on a fish when a juvenile Great Blue Heron interrupted his lunch and tried to get it away from him. I have several photos in the series of the hawk trying to get the most out of the fish - and the standoff between the Hawk and Heron, but this one is my favorite.
I posted the confrontation as one of my first posts here, and have recently gone back to the original photos, because I wanted to share this portrait. The one-eyed hawk was the winner in the battle over the fish!
ISO 800
70-300 VR lens @ 300
1/200 @ f/5.6
Handheld from the kayak.
It's amazing how resourceful these creatures can be. A missing eye has to be a huge disadvantage to an aerial hunter like this. I wonder if this guy had originally stolen the fish from the heron? It's a little hard to tell but this may be a relatively young bird, based on its dark eye color. The background is a bit busy and I might want to see more room on the right, just so it's not so centered but I like the image as it is because of the missing eye.
Thanks for sharing the story. Good to know that he can make it with one eye only. I would give it a bit more room top and left and sharpen the bird more.
Hi Amy, Thanks for sharing the story behind the image. It helps us to understand and study the image better. Since your intention was to show the one eye, the head turn and the looks have been well captured. Yes, the background is a bit busy. But still our attention is on that one eye! The image probably would have taken some more sharpness and saturation.
One Eyed Red-Shouldered Hawk
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