Even more RTH images (if you can stand it)

I saw a black winged kite as I walked out of the house yesterday morning so I turned around to get my camera. When I returned, the kite was gone so I started to put the camera up. I heard a lot of excitement from all the birds and suddenly a red tailed hawk swooped down right in front of me at waist level. It landed in a small live oak about 75 feet away. I was shooting towards the morning sun, but it was still fairly dark in the early morning shade so I got a chance to try out the high ISO. The first one is at ISO 1000 and the shutter speed was much too slow for hand held shooting with a 400 mm lens, so I kicked it up to ISO 1600 for the remainder of the images.


RTH: You like this pose, Mr. Bill?
BB: I dunno' ... that pose has become a worn out cliche. What else is in your repertoire? Can I set up some reflector screens? There is too much contrast.

A mockingbird harassed a hawk?!

tigerotor77w wrote in post #9075677
A mockingbird harassed a hawk?!

Our mockingbirds do it all the time. So do the blue jays.

Bill Boehme wrote in post #9075702
Our mockingbirds do it all the time. So do the blue jays.

Heh! I never would have imagined it. Is it usually a fight or just a flurry of wings?

(Nice pics btw -- I didn't mean to detract from that... I was just astounded!)

Thanks for the comments.

In flight, they fly just above and behind the hawk and swoop in to give the hawk a good peck. During nesting season, they will attack a hawk sitting in a tree making quick darting passes to hit the hawk on the back. The hawk can't hunt while this is going on, so it just flies off -- getting pecked along the way.

Here is a link to Flick showing a mockingbird attacking a hawk.
Here are a couple YouTube videos:

• Video 1
  
• Video 2

Great shots Bill...love the captions that go with the story.

Shar824 wrote in post #9076211
Great shots Bill...love the captions that go with the story.

Thanks, Sharon.