More Mississippi Kite

The good news is that I had my camera with me while walking the cat a couple evenings ago. The bad news is that Mr. Squeak (my avatar kitty) wasn't too interested in bird watching so I did not have much time to get a few shots as a pair of Mississippi Kites were busy working the local park and putting on a nice airshow. They would occasionally land in their favorite tree top and scan the area before taking off again.

Every time that this guy took off to do some aerial hunting, the blue jays and mocking birds were not too far away and seized the opportunity to give him some well placed pecks on the back. I think that he was getting a bit tired of it.

The images were shot just before sunset and hand held at about 120 feet using my 400 mm lens at f/8 and ISO800. I am using the CS5 versions of Camera RAW and Photoshop to process the images and have to say that ACR 6.1 is doing one heck of a job on high ISO noise without losing image sharpness. I am also using a slight amount of enhancement with the Neat Image plug-in to Photoshop.

Well done, especially considering the conditions!!

Ha..ha...I don't know anyone that takes a cat along for a bird shoot! Nice shots of this beautiful bird, and a great story.

jgrussell wrote in post #10717920
Well done, especially considering the conditions!!

Thanks, Judy. I never know what I may see while walking in our park -- there is a wide variety of songbirds, hawks, owls, herons, egrets, and ducks.

ajosteve wrote in post #10718404
Ha..ha...I don't know anyone that takes a cat along for a bird shoot! Nice shots of this beautiful bird, and a great story.

Well, one of our neighbors walks his goat in the park. Occasionally someone will ask what breed of dog is Mr. Squeak. I tell them that he is a catdog. Being a black and white tuxedo cat, he helps with my photography by assisting me with exposure and white balancing my images. He is a great model except that he occasionally wants to "nose" the camera lens (bad kitty).

Thanks for the comments, Steve.

Very nice shots. He looks serious enough to me.

But don't underestimate the power of a Blue Jay beak. I once saw a Common Grackle, catch, kill, gut and carry off a Cliff Swallow in under 2 minutes. Blue Jays and Grackles are about the same size and power, so I'm sure they could do some serious damage if they had the chance.

Your story and shots brought a smile to my face. A cat shooting birds? I like the shots. The bird looks especially lovely in that dying light.

canonloader wrote in post #10719191
Very nice shots. He looks serious enough to me.

But don't underestimate the power of a Blue Jay beak. I once saw a Common Grackle, catch, kill, gut and carry off a Cliff Swallow in under 2 minutes. Blue Jays and Grackles are about the same size and power, so I'm sure they could do some serious damage if they had the chance.

Thanks, Mitch. I know that blue jays are brazen and do not hesitate to attack hawks and other birds of prey. Your grackle series was very interesting. I would not have guessed that they would kill and fly off with an adult bird.

Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #10719409
Your story and shots brought a smile to my face. A cat shooting birds? I like the shots. The bird looks especially lovely in that dying light.

Thanks for your comments, Levina. Mr. Squeak is the cat equivalent of a pointer dog.

Bill Boehme wrote in post #10721437
Thanks, Mitch. I know that blue jays are brazen and do not hesitate to attack hawks and other birds of prey.

I've seen yellow warblers and warbling vireos attack a Red-tailed hawk! Orioles attacked it too.