The Year of the Falcon

2012 started and ended with Peregrine Falcons at Bolivar Flats in Texas.  Got some take-off shots of a Falcon back in January and had the opportunity again in late Dec.  After spending some quality time shooting shore birds, headed back to my car when I spotted something out of the ordinary further down on the beach.  Looked like a small post sticking up from my vantage point.  Raised my camera and saw that it was my old buddy, the Peregrine Falcon.  He was perched on top of a plastic bin that was sticking out of the sand.

Made my way towards him and ended up laying down to get a few photos.  Wasn’t satisfied with my first position so I got up and moved to my right to get a better angle if he took off.  They don’t shift their perched position much and tend to take off in the direction that they are facing.  They also like to stretch out their wings right before they take off which can give you a good opportunity for a wings-up position.  This one stretched, but did it with his wings down by his side.  Shortly afterwards, he took off and flew towards me.  Got several shots that I liked with the best of them shown below.

Taken with Canon 7D and Canon 500mm F4 IS II lens with 1.4x teleconverter mounted on Skimmer ground pod with Wimberley II gimbal head

1/1600 sec @ F7.1, ISO 400, evaluative metering, + 1/3 exposure compensation, 700mm

1/1600 sec @ F7.1, ISO 400, evaluative metering, + 1/3 exposure compensation, 700mm

1/1600 sec @ F7.1, ISO 400, evaluative metering, + 1/3 exposure compensation, 700mm

1/1600 sec @ F7.1, ISO 400, evaluative metering, + 1/3 exposure compensation, 700mm