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Cooper's Hawk Nest
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Cooper's Hawk Nest

by Steve Balke

Gallery: AvianPosted May 1, 201057 views4 comments
Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii)

This nest was high in a tree but the tree was located near the base of a ravine. So, it was possible to obtain this side view. The bird most in view is the larger of the two and apparently the female. The head of the male is just visible beneath her.

This was the clearest view that I could obtain: there are just too many leafy branches surrounding the nest. It will likely become even more concealed as Spring advances.

All comments very welcome.

EOS 7D, EF 400 mm f/5.6, 1.4 X Extender, HH, Manual Focus: 560 mm, 1/800 s, f/8.0, ISO 500, image is 3066 pixels x 2453 pixels (=7.5 MP or 42% of the 18 MP of the 7D).

Comments

4 comments
Comment posted by Dan Moore on May 1, 2010 at 9:38 AM
You take what is there. Very good eye contact on both. I enjoyed seeing this very much.

Dan
Registered on February 11, 2010, 143 Posts, 1248 Comments
Comment posted by Brian Gatlin on May 1, 2010 at 11:17 PM
tough to get a clear view, for sure--looks like you did the best you could here, and the hunched down pose fit the bird in just right. It does seem a little soft, not sure if it's due to the manual focus?
Registered on March 21, 2009, 202 Posts, 4187 Comments
Comment posted by Steve Balke on May 2, 2010 at 8:02 PM
Thank you all for your comments. Sorry to hear the dreaded S word ("soft") from you Brian. I suspect that the focus is o.k. but you are seeing a noise level that I couldn't reduce further. I've been using liveview in manual focus and find that it works quite well. However, this nest was in deep shade and I had to increase exposure in post processing with a consequent increase in noise. On the suggestion of a friend I've started examining Lightroom 3 Beta 2. Although it will take some time to figure out the best slider settings in its noise reduction, my first impression is that it has excellent potential to deal with these difficult situations. :smile:
Registered on June 18, 2009, 229 Posts, 2915 Comments
Comment posted by Monica Siri on May 3, 2010 at 3:47 PM
Steve,
very nice and interesting habitat shot. I like how you're able to capture the orange eyes of both.
Registered on September 20, 2009, 132 Posts, 3764 Comments