Birds of Prey....Your Pictures Wanted!

Very well caught Angus, you were lucky it sat for so long.

Beautiful bird! Well captured as well. Amazing that it stayed long enough for you to take the picture. Congrats and well done

Nice additions Angus ;-)

Thanks everyone. Glad you like the shots.

I think the reason the Sparrowhawk allowed me so close is that it was more used to people than normal. Finchampstead north (a couple of miles south of Wokingham) is fairly heavily populated. This bird would encounter a lot of people and recognise that is it mostly left alone. On the other hand, it might have been particularly dopey.

Anyway, a couple of small ones for y'all. Photographed about an hour ago on the Manor farm portion of the nascent Longwater road nature reserve. Unfortunately, I didn't have my long lens with me - it had rained heavily and there was the possibility of further showers. I didn't want to risk the long lens. Instead, I took my Canon 800D and Sigma 18-300mm lens. Serviceable, but just doesn't have the legs of my long lens. The Red Kite decided not to come close to the footpath I was on. Staying some 75m away.

Still, you don't get many back shots of a Red Kite.

Totally amazing photos!! And how beautiful it is to see the details of the kites feathers from the back! Such a beautiful bird, thank you so much for sharing these with us

What an absolutely fabulous photo! The kestrel looks so cute perched on that stick. Well done on capturing it with the lovely sun shining on it

Thanks :)

Jock got lucky this morning  :-]

After making chicken stock, I put bones, skin and other bits out for birds. I place them on a large (40cm) pot tray. This enables me to bring them in at night - otherwise foxes invade garden to eat the bits.

Our local Red Kites have learned my habit. They swoop down, quiet spectacularly, to grab bits. Recently, one has taken to lurking in a large oak tree, back of our property.  This was from this morning. Weather conditions were murky, dank, dismal, overcast, dark.  Shot through window, meaning even less light getting through lens.

It sat in the tree for a good 10 to 15 minutes, and only moved around said tree when I started to photograph it.  The thing could see me through window, despite my best efforts to hid behind various bits of furniture.