Congratulations Bryan Hix for your image "Dec Theme: Cooper's vs rabbit " being chosen as the Avian Image of the Week for the week ending 12/31/2010!!!
I was out at Montrose beach this morning in Chicago and as I was walking back to my car, I noticed this rabbit that clearly had something wrong with it as it was listing to one side and could only run in tight circles. I put my 600mm lens, Mk3, and tripod in the car and walked over to see what the deal was. The rabbit ran when I was about 3 feet away and slid under the fence. I decided to let in be and walked back around to my car. When I turned back to look, this Cooper's Hawk swooped in a started attacking the rabbit. It made several runs at it and fortunately I had my 50D with my new 70-200mm f/2.8 II with me and I walked right up to the action and started shooting. I have about 7 good shots, so I thought I would post at least one. I liked this because the rabbit is in mid-air and snow is flying. Pretty awesome to be that close. In the end, the rabbit hunkered down under a bush with the Cooper's perched about 10 feet above it. I'm sure it didn't end well for the rabbit.
Canon 50 D
Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 IS USM II
ISO 320, 1/4000th@f/4, AvMode, Eval 0 comp
9:35am, 22 degrees
LR 3.3, PSE9: Crop, adj shadows, sharpen, cloned out branch
