White-tailed Kites - Disputed Territory

[RonnF]

I'm including links to three images of what I took to be a territorial dispute between two White-tailed Kites at Arastradero Preserve in Palo Alto, California. The entire sequence of shots is at http://www.pbase.com/rfredrick/whitetailedkites The encounter ended with one of the hawks beating a hasty retreat to hunt over a distant field. All images were taken with a Canon EOS 30D using a Canon 400mm F5.6, with 400 ISO, 1/4000 at f/5.6.


http://www.pbase.com/image/90165018.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/rfredrick/image/90139475.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/rfredrick/image/90171123.jpg

[catsith]

great action series!

[MikeI]

Sweet series!!! Kites are amont my favorites to photograph, but I have never had anything like these. Well done!

[RonnF]

Tina and Mikel, thanks for taking the time to comment. Always appreciated. And Mike, I always have trouble getting close to WT Kites as well. These two were too distracted to notice that they were closer than the usual minmum distance they seem to keep.

Ron

[Nighthound]

Great captures Ron!

NH

[racketman]

awesome, must have been thrilling to watch.

[RonnF]

Thank you for your comments, Steve and Toby. And yes, Toby, it was exciting to see this encounter. Two beautiful birds doing their aerobatic best to get the advantage over the other. My wife and I were disappointed we weren't able to find and photograph the bird we were looking for (Lewis's Woodpecker) but this certainly made up for the disappointment. :-)


Ron

[Howler-Cat]

Great action shots Ron!

[pttenn]

Wow! That must have been a thrill to capture!
Karen

[rx7turboii]

Those are great, I would love to see some raptor on raptor action.

[RonnF]

Great action shots Ron!
Thanks, Ben. I was lucky to be there when they got into it.

Wow! That must have been a thrill to capture!
Karen
It was very exciting, Karen. I wish I could stumble onto that kind of action every weekend!!


Those are great, I would love to see some raptor on raptor action.
I agree. That would be a "Kodak Moment" for sure...

Thanks to you all for your comments. I haven't posted in the forum for over a year so it's nice to hear such nice comments about the images

Ron

[dancinec]

Great shots Ron, well done.

[avwh]

Those are amazing shots, Ronn.

[hTr]

Amazing Series!!!

[Kevin]

Great series Ron. They are really getting into each others face. I love the excitement of shooting Raptor battles.

[sugarzebra]

Fabulous series Ron....each shot is excellent.

[DonE]

Nice stuff here!

[RonnF]

Great shots Ron, well done.

Those are amazing shots, Ronn.

Amazing Series!!!

Great series Ron. They are really getting into each others face. I love the excitement of shooting Raptor battles.

Fabulous series Ron....each shot is excellent.

Nice stuff here!

Dennis, Allen, Gary, Kevin, Scott and DonE - Thanks very much for your comments. As I said earlier, I haven't posted to this forum in over a year. And even though the quality of the images was very high then, it's even gotten better over the last year. The color and sharpness of some of your images makes me reluctant to post my own. But isn't it great to be able to share images of spectacular birds in this forum with folks who appreciate them as much as you do? In this case, I'm pleased that my wife and I are not the only ones who "witnessed" this encounter.

Ron

[cookie99]

Superb shots, I sold my 400 5.6 for a 300 F4 and I am now going back to the 400 for in flight photos, it is a great lens for that work.

[RonnF]

Thanks, Chris. I've actually been reluctant to use the 400 f/5.6 off the tripod because I got used to using the 100-400 with IS. Now my wife uses that lens and I use the 400. We originally bought that lens for her because I knew it was a very sharp lens and popular with bird photographers. I missed being able to go for flight shots; so in good light, I go without the tripod and so far I'm happy with the results.

Ron

[cookie99]

Ron I used my 400 almost exclusively for in flight shot but because I travel by motorcycle I thought I would kill two birds with one stone and get the 300 F4 IS and use the 1.4 converter with it.

Bad move, 1.4 gives you 420 mm but slows down the auto focus on my 30D to the point that in flight shots mostly don't come off.

I am buying another 400 5.6 next week and will set that up for in flight shooting on one of my 30Ds and carry the 300 for low light hand held shots of still wildlife.

Today I am off to pursue a Swamp Harrier which is having territorial disputes with a Goshawk so wish me luck.

Those photos that you posted are now in my reference library among those of many professional wildlife photographers, keep shooting mate you obviously have a rare talent.:oops:

Cheers

Chris

[sfischer]

Amazing! It is very fortunate to have encountered such a skrimish.
How much did you have to crop these posts?

[RonnF]

....Today I am off to pursue a Swamp Harrier which is having territorial disputes with a Goshawk so wish me luck.

Those photos that you posted are now in my reference library among those of many professional wildlife photographers, keep shooting mate you obviously have a rare talent.:oops:


Sounds like a great photo op! I'll be watching for your images.

Chris, I very much appreciate your kind words, but this series dropped in my lap. No pursuing or other skills on my part. So I'm afraid the only thing rare about these images was the opportunity I had. Good luck with the Swamp Harrier/Goshawk encounter!!


Amazing! It is very fortunate to have encountered such a skrimish.
How much did you have to crop these posts?

Thanks, Steve. Fortunate is the key word here. I've never been that lucky in the past. I hope to be lucky again because it was thrilling to watch. I'm posting an uncropped image of one of the shots for comparison. It was farther away than I would normally shoot but I posted the images anyway because of the unusual subject matter.


Ron

[kr88]

Killer action series!! Nice job of staying with it, it must of been great to witness this.

[RonnF]

Killer action series!! Nice job of staying with it, it must of been great to witness this.

Thanks, Keith. Appreciate the comment. And yes, it was terrific!!
BTW, I haven't posted here in over year and it's nice to see that you, dancinec , dancad, Gary Fairhead and others are still posting and have been joined by other very high quality photographers. Gives the rest of us a very high standard of quality for which to shoot!

Ron

[rocklyons]

Great action series.

[RonnF]

Great action series.

Thanks, Rock. It was great fun watching and photographing the action.
Glad you liked the sequence and appreciate you taking the time to comment.

Ron