Falconry presentation - kestrel, merlin, golden eagle,

These were taken at a falconry presentation I was at over the weekend at a renaissance faire. The presenter is a professional raptor rehabilitator: these are all birds that have been with her for a while, and are comfortable with her and with crowds. The smaller birds, of course, pretty much never stopped moving, and I screwed up my camera settings so it was trying to overexpose them.... I didn't get many acceptable pictures of the Kestrel or Merlin, sadly. I figured out what I'd done by the time the Red Tail came out, though...

1) American Kestrel

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/amckenzie4/5854​492234/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/amckenzie4/5854​495344/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/amckenzie4/5853​940863/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/amckenzie4/5853​944323/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/amckenzie4/5853​946521/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/amckenzie4/5853​945603/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/amckenzie4/5853​945175/

Very nice. I notice she didn't put her nose in the eagles face.

Very nice. The red tailed hawk is my favorite

canonloader wrote in post #12640687
Very nice. I notice she didn't put her nose in the eagles face.

She did, actually... it was quite cute, and someone stepped in front of my camera just as she did it. The eagle closed its eyes and started trying to preen her hair.

talloulou wrote in post #12640717
Very nice. The red tailed hawk is my favorite

Thanks!

This is a great series. It is really interesting to see them in a series next to the same person, for a proper sense of scale. How heavy is that Golden Eagle?

JH

looks like a lot of fun,, nice shots. I agree with JH up above. The lovely lady rehaber must have some good arm muscles there, that Golden must be heavy, don't mean to offend in any way, her right arm just looks a bit on the....... smaller side for holding a big ol Golden!

jhoag wrote in post #12640805
This is a great series. It is really interesting to see them in a series next to the same person, for a proper sense of scale. How heavy is that Golden Eagle?

JH

BGgraphy wrote in post #12640844
looks like a lot of fun,, nice shots. I agree with JH up above. The lovely lady rehaber must have some good arm muscles there, that Golden must be heavy, don't mean to offend in any way, her right arm just looks a bit on the....... smaller side for holding a big ol Golden!

As I recall, she said the Golden weighed about 17 pounds. So it's heavy, but not too excessive. Birds always look a lot heavier than they actually are, anyway... The kestrel and merlin were both well under a pound (I think it was like five or six ounces for the merlin, and four or five for the kestrel), two or three pounds for the red tail, and about a pound and a half for the barred owl.

great set Alex

Great set. That Gold is one BIG f-in' bird! Those are high on my desire list for catching some in-flights of.

kmunroe wrote in post #12641489
great set Alex

Thanks!

Snydremark wrote in post #12641527
Great set. That Gold is one BIG f-in' bird! Those are high on my desire list for catching some in-flights of.

Thank you! They're seriously impressive... I've never seen one wild, but I hope too.