The hawks are still out and about, but I have yet to get shots worthy of posting here. A bit of research has led me to the conclusion that I may need a fieldscope and a digiscope to get the photos I need. That said, I think I missed a golden opportunity yesterday. I left my camera at the office and missed two red tails perfectly lit by late afternoon sun against a dark-sky background. Talk about a missed opportunity. SO - I have learned two things from all this:
1. I need better equipment
2. I need to carry the equipment I do have with me - all the time
Keep an eye on this site over the coming weeks. I'll be adding a map tracking the birds' locations and ideally posting some beautiful shots of these hawks. I'll also be writing a bit on the history of the Dismal Swamp Canal.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
The hunt continues
Okay, so these hawks are really hard to photograph. I chucked my point-and-shoot for a Nikon D700 with a 75-300mm 5.6 lens with the hopes that I might have better luck than Sunday. Owing to my keen vision, I spotted a beautiful specimen perched on a high fence abutting a fallow field about a quarter-of-a-mile away, near mile marker 5.4 on the Virginia side of the border.
I grabbed up my camera, and the bird didn't move a muscle. I opened the car door and carefully stepped out. She was perfect stillness on her perch. I began to walk, ever so slowly, down the road toward her. Utter and complete placidity. I started to lift my camera and she was on the wind. In the resulting distant and blurry photos, she resembles not so much a bird as a slightly-more-graceful-than-usual dust mote. I won't be sharing these ones - rather, I will be devising a new plan of action.
Any suggestions on how I should proceed?
I grabbed up my camera, and the bird didn't move a muscle. I opened the car door and carefully stepped out. She was perfect stillness on her perch. I began to walk, ever so slowly, down the road toward her. Utter and complete placidity. I started to lift my camera and she was on the wind. In the resulting distant and blurry photos, she resembles not so much a bird as a slightly-more-graceful-than-usual dust mote. I won't be sharing these ones - rather, I will be devising a new plan of action.
Any suggestions on how I should proceed?
Monday, February 15, 2010
Day 1
Yesterday I discovered that red-tailed hawks are not easy to photograph.
I have been driving the route between Norfolk, Va., and Elizabeth City, N.C., almost daily now for more than a year, and I have seen as many as six hawks on one leg of the drive. I see at least one hawk every day. Sometimes they perch on the fences that divide vast soy and corn fields from U.S. Highway 17, which runs along the Dismal Swamp Canal - a historic trench that is itself a boundary. Beyond it lies the broad wilderness of the Great Dismal Swamp.
Yesterday, northbound from Elizabeth City, I spotted a (breeding?) pair perched on a fence about six miles north of the North Carolina/Virginia border. I had taken along my trusty Canon SD1200 IS point-and-shoot camera in the hopes of capturing just such a sighting. I pulled off the road (rather abruptly) and reached for the camera, but by the time I had lifted it, they were halfway across the wintery field, making for a distant stand of long-leaf pines. Tomorrow, I will take a Nikon SLR and a long lens, and park a good distance away. I'll let you know how that goes.
I created this blog as a means to follow the hawks living along U.S. 17 - to identify individuals, photograph them in their habitat and identify their territories. I also hope to learn more about these exciting raptors through interviews with naturalists and researchers, which I will share here. I'll also discuss interesting historical and natural facts about the swamp and farmlands that comprise these hawks' habitat.
I have been driving the route between Norfolk, Va., and Elizabeth City, N.C., almost daily now for more than a year, and I have seen as many as six hawks on one leg of the drive. I see at least one hawk every day. Sometimes they perch on the fences that divide vast soy and corn fields from U.S. Highway 17, which runs along the Dismal Swamp Canal - a historic trench that is itself a boundary. Beyond it lies the broad wilderness of the Great Dismal Swamp.
Yesterday, northbound from Elizabeth City, I spotted a (breeding?) pair perched on a fence about six miles north of the North Carolina/Virginia border. I had taken along my trusty Canon SD1200 IS point-and-shoot camera in the hopes of capturing just such a sighting. I pulled off the road (rather abruptly) and reached for the camera, but by the time I had lifted it, they were halfway across the wintery field, making for a distant stand of long-leaf pines. Tomorrow, I will take a Nikon SLR and a long lens, and park a good distance away. I'll let you know how that goes.
I created this blog as a means to follow the hawks living along U.S. 17 - to identify individuals, photograph them in their habitat and identify their territories. I also hope to learn more about these exciting raptors through interviews with naturalists and researchers, which I will share here. I'll also discuss interesting historical and natural facts about the swamp and farmlands that comprise these hawks' habitat.
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