Steve created a site where every afternoon, the Harris Hawks and Crested Caracara come to hang out. It is a magical place especially those days when the birds come to play. At first, you see the Harris Hawks in the trees around the perches just waiting.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp4092.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
Once the pair of Harris decide it’s time to play, then with incredible speed and agility they are on the perch. Here you see the male & female, you know how to tell who is who? The female is the larger of the two and in this case, the bird closest to the lens.
And then once the Crested Caracara appear, defense of the perches can get hot and heavy. In that process they come closer and closer to the blinds. Yeap, we just sit in the blinds watching and shooting. The activity can go in a heartbeat from panic to utter boredom, and there isn’t anything better. Much of the time I am manually focusing, prefocusing where I think the birds will land and then fine tuning really quickly.
A very common question which has no real answer is, “where can you crop birds?” There are no rules, no guidelines only good and bad places to crop. You want to avoid creating a hunter’s wall mount with your crop or anything that just feels uncomfortable. Otherwise, there really is nothing to aid in saying what’s right or what’s wrong. It can be a challenge.
Photos captured by D3x, 600VR on Lexar UDMA digital film