Vole Population Control: Red-tailed Hawk

[Daniel Cadieux]

A local very tame juvenile Red-tailed Hawk has been thrilling photographers, birders, and curious bystanders for a few weeks now, hunting and roosting (unfortunately, by the side of a busy road). On more than one occasion it has let people approach to within mere feet of it without much, if any, fuss on its part. Here it had just caught a vole by the side of the road, and suddenly took off directly in front of me. As luck would have it the best and sharpest image of the series had a badly clipped wing at top. The best workaround was to crop in tighter during post-processing. At least this has put focus on the hawk's menacing stare and unlucky prey....

Canon 7D + 100-400L @235mm, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/2500s., f/6.3, ISO 800, natural light, handheld. Feet, part of body, and under the wing lightened via dodge tool (I could have then run a bit of NR on those parts)...

[RakeshDhareshwar]

Wow ! That's quite near @ 235 mm !!! I like the crop and the fact the the prey is sharp too .

[dankearl]

That is sharp! It is unfortunate you didn't get the whole bird, but you certainly made the best of it.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Dan, I like what you have done with your comp - it focusses ( pun intended ) the attention on the head and catch. How are those talons, and I do like the colours of what we can see of the BG.

[gail bisson]

Excellent "in your face" shot. Love the prey in the mouth and the little eye.. Tack sharp. I wish I could see the whole tail but that is a minor nit,
Gail

[Sandesh R.Dhareshwar]

An eye catching image and everything as one would love to have

[Steven Kersting]

I have no issue with the crop. Great capture IMO. Overall it seems like it might be a touch too red.

[Grace Scalzo]

I love the crop. The story of this image is as much about the vole as the hawk, and this tells it perfectly. A full bird would make the vole too small in the frame, imho. Good job, Daniel. But do tell that bird to stay away from the road. We loose alot to cars here on Long Island.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

I don't mind the clipped wings because it is so close and intimate that it makes up for it IMO

[Doug Brown]

You definitely made the most of a close encounter! I like the tight crop, as it gives us a better look at the vole.

[Arno Ellmer]

Excellent capture,Daniel.I like the tight crop ,the sharpness and the detail of the head and prey ,and in particular the fierce eye.

[arash_hazeghi]

nice pose and details, birds with clipped wings usually don't work for me but the prey makes up for that here. I just wish the shadow line was not there and there is some noise in the shaded plumage (looks like you had to raise exposure here). Finally it's better if you posted 1024 pixels so we can see the vole better. Great catch

[Bill Dix]

Tight crop really made the best of the situation. Great eye contact on the bird, and I love the eye contact on the vole as well. Nicely captured.

[Robert Holguin]

Wow!!! Excellent close up shot. Great detail, love the vole in its beak, and I really like the comp.
Well done.