Killer in my Garden by kaward

Photography • Animals • posted on Nov 25, 2013

Open full image in new tab Zoom on image

Hover over top left image to zoom.
Click anywhere to exit.

Members remain the original copyright holder in all their materials here at Renderosity. Use of any of their material inconsistent with the terms and conditions set forth is prohibited and is considered an infringement of the copyrights of the respective holders unless specially stated otherwise.

Description

My wife called " there's a big bird eating the food you put in the middle of the lawn" I said "I haven't put any food on the lawn". So when I looked it was all the feathers that my wife thought was food. The big bird was this Sparrowhawk eating a house sparrow. I gabbed my camera quickly and shot away until he had eaten his prey and departed. He left a large area of feathers as evidence of the deed. I have many bird feeders around the garden, so have seen Sparrowhawks many times, male and female. I have seen the circle of feathers before from many birds, but not seen them in the act. It is just feeding another bird to me though. Nothing but nature surviving in an urban environment, and a great photo opportunity of course. It was very dull so shot at 800 asa and still only getting around 1/80 sec. Lens ( 400mm) wide open too and shot through double glazing. Me leaning on the window board resting on my elbows, not idea for jumpy birds. Some shots its head was just a blur as it looked around. So I'm glad I fired plenty and it stayed still enough for it to be recognisable on some shots!

Comments (20)

)

dakotabluemoon

6:00AM | Mon, 25 November 2013

Wow very nice close up shot of this hawk.

)

Rob2753

6:05AM | Mon, 25 November 2013

There's still a lot of detail despite the high ISO and shooting through glass, good capture, I had one of these take a sparrow on the wing just a few yards in front of me in my garden, I didn't have a camera with me at the time but even if I had it was all over in a few seconds !

ronmolina

6:41AM | Mon, 25 November 2013

Excellent shot!

)

pamjr44

7:54AM | Mon, 25 November 2013

Wow. How lucky are you to have one of those in your garden (and to be ready with your camera. Well done.

)

durleybeachbum

8:09AM | Mon, 25 November 2013

There's been a murder! What a great result, Kevin! I see them all the time but NO chance of a pic with my Tizzy!

)

FractalFactor

8:30AM | Mon, 25 November 2013

Great shot. What an eye the bird has.

)

jayfar

9:04AM | Mon, 25 November 2013

A great capture Kevin and this looks like a female.

)

MrsRatbag

9:06AM | Mon, 25 November 2013

Well captured considering the conditions! I've seen the feather remains in my garden too, but haven't yet seen the predator. We have lots of red-tailed hawks and bald eagles around here, so it could be almost anything. I'll keep hoping to spot one!

)

Adobe_One_Kenobi

9:26AM | Mon, 25 November 2013

Excellent Kev! And I am so pleased to see someone using the correct term of "Window board". So many say window sill they don't realize the sill is on the outside of the window. Anyway, good thing this was a meal he had, at first I thought it was self harming LOL!

)