Juvenile Red Tail Hawk's In Flight, C&C Appreciated

Took these on a hike above Simi Valley, Ca last Sunday. I used the 1DMIIN and my new 400 F/5.6L. I love this lens, not too bad hiking with it and it is so sharp. Now on the the Hawks, they never seem to be close enough, even with 400mm. Let me know what you think and any helpful hints for next time would be great

When the sky is very deep blue, the brightness seems to reflect back and can make birds underneath very dark, I see that you have managed to expose just enough to get good detail underneath, including the colour of the eye. These are good captures of the red tail hawk as it soars above in the skies, well done.

Thank you Anthony, I love hiking and looking for these guys. They can be so elusive. I did see lots of Turkey Vultures, they are everywhere. Is there anything else I can do to improve

great job, thats some seriously blue sky. Glad you are liking the 400 5.6. sure is a beauty for birding isnt it.

A little tip.
The middle image has a very deep blue and if you look closer at the bird the wing edges has a halo around them, usually caused by sharpening. If you use Adobe Photoshop and use the filter USM to sharpen it up, before doing anything else go to the menu to Edit/fade unsharp mask and when the dialog appears click on mode to luminosity and fade down the sharpening, the halo will almost disappear, but do this with the original..

Thank you sir, I love photographing these guys, quite challenging

Thank you for the tip, all I did was a Raw Conversion and crop though.

Here are a couple of shots top side