EarthSky Community Photos

Submit your photo here. Comment or upvote on photo pages. Search via photographers' names. More improvements coming! To help, please donate.

Steve Price
Draper, UT USA
11/27/2022
04:00 pm

Equipment Details:

Canon T3i with 70-200 Canon soo lens @ 200mm, handheld, indoors. shot through not so clean double pane windows.

Post-processing Details:

Cropped, sharpened.

Image Details:

About an hour or so after his first hunting visit to my bird feeders, the Sharp-shinned Hawk returned for Round Two. When it landed in the tree all of the feeding birds flew away. Some to take their chances in open sky and many others dove into the Boxwood shrub below the feeders. What was the better choice?

The Hawk stared intently into the bush for perhaps 45 seconds to a minute. While I was busy taking as many photos as possible through my dining room and den windows trying not to spook it. After a little reconnaissance, the Hawk dove, wings spread wide. It almost looked like a belly flop off a diving platform. Straight down onto the shrub, instantly folding in its wings and disappearing into the bush.

I held my breath counting the seconds with the camera tracked right on target. No movement for 10-15 seconds, then a violent shake of the lower branches. Then nothing again. A few seconds later the hawk reappeared on the far side of the shrub and just stood there. Five photos later the single wing flap in its talon told the tale. A closeup zoom in on the camera image revealed what I'm seeing in the LCD screen is one less Junco visiting my feeder...but the Hawk now has a meal. Circle of life.