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White Tailed Kite - A Quick Shot from Yesterday

Mike Spinak

pro member
There's a major population explosion of California voles in the fields along the coast, not far from me. The voles are nature's perfect snack food, for many small predators, including raptors, and so those fields are thick with red tailed hawks, red shouldered hawks, white tailed kites, barn owls, great blue herons, and so on.

Yesterday, i went to the coast to shoot them. I had big plans of the photos I was going to take, of the raptors strafing the ground with their claws open, of their take-offs with voles dangling in their grips, and so on. However, the fog rolled in within minutes of my arrival at the coast. I did what I could with the birds, then took some coastal shots, and determined to come back this weekend, to try again.

Anyway, here's a quick shot from yesterday, right before the fog rolled in.

1481390247_a559f0d65b_o.jpg

© Mike Spinak

I hope you enjoy.
 

Mike Spinak

pro member
Bart,

Thanks.

I was using a Canon 600 f/4 IS lens with a 2x teleconverter on a Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II camera, mounted on a customized Velbon Carmagne 630 Tripod with and Acratech Ultimate Ballhead. The shot was triggered with an electronic cable release. The exposure was: shutter speed was 1/1250th of a second, ISO 1600, f/8 (I was already losing a lot of light, as the fog was coming in).

Not much technique... I saw the kite, walked toward it, set up my gear, waited for a good moment, and took the shot.

I should have a lot more to show, in a few days.
 

John_Nevill

New member
Nicely caught Mike, very angelic!

We have both red and black varieties in Europe, so its great to see their relatives.

Raptor numbers seem to have grown this year. While out lunchtime today, I heard and spotted a few European Buzzards soaring and diving for food, alas no camera.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
John,

I agree that the shot is very..... but "angelic"!! Maybe an angel of death! The growth of some species and decline in others may be due to redistribution of whole food chains in the current temperature changes with spring coming earlier.

Mike,

Amazing that you say not much technque! You had to find the location, set up your monster lens with the x1.4 get that in the vicinity of the bird. Now how do you then get the bird to stay in view as you lock the Acratech ballhead, transfer to your cable and take the shot?

Asher
 
Last edited:

Mike Spinak

pro member
Originally posted by Asher Kelman

"Now how do you then get the bird to stay in view as you lock the Acratech ballhead, transfer to your cable and take the shot?"

It was pretty easy, based on the situation I saw, combined with what I know about their behavior. I knew that (1) the kite would stay in this field, where the conditions were good, and make a circuit, hitting the exact same spots (which look most promising) over and over, until it ate its fill; (2) kites hover in place for several seconds at a time, while scanning the ground for prey; (3) the kite would be too emboldened by the meal possibilities, and too focused on catching prey, to care about me approaching closely.
 
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