Peregrine falcon off Cuba's SE coast

[zackiedawg]

I had a nice at-sea visit by a peregrine falcon - a bird I rarely see and never got a nice photo of - while cruising around the Windward Passage off SE Cuba...he was hitching a ride on the boat for his southbound migration to S. America, and occasionally launching off to hunt over the seas for a flying fish...this gave me a good opportunity to stand on my balcony and finally get some nice peregrine shots! I was using the A580 DSLR with Tamron 150-600mm lens.

Banking around behind the ship

Coming back in the direction of the ship:

Coming directly over my balcony, backlit by the sun:

Making a high speed pass by my balcony...boy, they're fast!;

Another pass going the opposite direction of the boat, closer:

Coming back, and having a look at me this time - since I was pointing a big black tube at him!:

Coming straight on at full speed:

A final pass, banking away as he got parallel to my balcony:

 

[Howie]

never knew peregrines hunt fish. must have been a thrill to photograph the fastest animal on earth. my favorite raptor

 

[zackiedawg]

They really are quite something - super fast - it's like they hit the afterburners and go from normal fast to hyper fast turbo mode.

I had never known them to be fishers either - but I guess when migrating and passing over all those long ocean passages, they may get hungry and become opportunists. The flying fish can get to be a pretty good size and can fly quite a ways out of the water - so maybe they look more like birds anyway! Since he was staying with the ship for a few days as his home base, I guess it was hard not to notice all the winged creatures buzzing down below and he decided to go try them out.

 

[Howie]

when I first started and was using a D80 and tamron 200-500 I saw a peregrine fighting with a gull over a crab. once in lifetime thing and I was at ISO400 and F8 so my shutter was too slow and every shot was blurry. needless to say I was upset. learned a lesson that day