Red-Tailed Hawk!!! - a photo on Flickriver

Red-Tailed Hawk!!!

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This shot is the result of a dozen little decisions to do one thing instead of another.

I was planning to go somewhere else yesterday to shoot. I woke up later than I wanted and would have missed sunrise so I decided to go to the National Zoo instead. I spotted the Red-Shouldered Hawk pair hunting behind the Bird House, got some shots and moved on before I got anything great. Then I headed down the hill and after a bit went looking for a Red-Tailed Hawk in the area I had seen one a few months ago.

Having looked there for 5 minutes I gave up and headed over to the Lions and Tigers. As I was walking up the hill, I spotted this guy about head high in a tree! After a moment he took flight RIGHT AT ME! I got a few shots and he went around the corner and I lost sight of him.

Then I did something I usually wind up kicking myself for, I went looking for a bird I'd just seen that flew away. But, within a minute I found him again and he was nearly head-high again in a tree. He was hunting for a squirrel, and didn't pay me nearly any mind. I managed to photograph him for about 40 minutes and got around 100 shots. I managed to get so close that at 400mm I couldn't get the entire bird in the shot, even when shooting vertically.

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Taken in: United States / District of Columbia / Washington / Mount Pleasant (show map)

Taken on: January 5, 2008

Tags:

RTH

D300

25-f

Wild

In Flight

Birds

Animal

Animals

Nature

Quality

zoo

80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D VR

Nikkor

Lenstagged

Nikon D300

Nikographer

Nikon

Bird

wildlife

US National Zoo

Natl Zoo

Smithsonian

Washington D.C.

Wash DC

FONZ

Red Tailed Hawk

jss2008 1

imagesforblog1

Jan

January

2008

National Zoo

Washington « less

Sets appears in: • 2008 Grab Bag • 50-99 Favs more » • Hawks • National Zoo, Best of • D300 • Some of my favorite images as of December 2008 (Nikographer [Jon]) • Wildlife @ the Zoo « less

Groups appears in: • National Zoo (US) in Washington D.C. • Nikon D200/D300 Users more » • Nikon D300 Users « less

Camera: Nikon D300, f/5.3, 1/1000 sec, 240mm (=360mm), ISO 400 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D300
Aperture:	f/5.3
Exposure Time:	0.001 sec (1/1000)
Focal Length:	240mm (35mm equivalent: 360mm)
ISO:	400
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Gain Control:	Low gain up
Sharpness:	Soft
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows
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