shot this while holding camera out the car window into the light while going about 10 mph and the hawk was flying into approx 30mph head wind
That splash you hear is Howie driving his car into the ocean. ; ; Be careful out there! ; This is a great shot of this bird, Howie!
Very nice to catch one so low and so closeup! ; I've not yet gotten a harrier to put itself within that tight of a range to me.
;D Scott and thanks Scott and Justin. I have almost driven off the road into the water a few times Justin they are without a doubt one of the toughest birds to get in flight. the harriers and the short eared owls move around so fast and change directions horizontal and vertical fast enough to drive you mad. it is so hard to keep a focus lock on them and multi point is useless as when they go into grassy areas the camera always loses focus. I use single point AF-C and with all the lens movement I look like I writing the Gettysburg Address in the sky
You're telling me! ; For whatever reason I get tons of birds that will fly closer to me, enough to get my 420mm or 500mm on him for a nice big shot. ; But every opportunity I've had on harriers seems to be much more distant - they just don't get as close to me. ; Sometimes so distant that even after huge crop, I'm not even sure if it's a harrier or not (if that tail bar isn't visible). ; This is typically the size and distance I get harriers at...and these are tons o' cropping: I'm usually single point AF too, unless I've got a completely empty sky for background, in which case I'll light up all the points and let the camera do the tracking. ; My problem is just not getting them close enough, even with 500mm!!
same here Justin. they don't come close often and with all the gulls around now sometimes I don't see the harrier until it is too late as they blend in at a distance until as you say you see that bar
