A cold, cold day - Juvenile Buzzard

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Hi,

I went out yesterday lunchtime for a walk my home golf course in search of a buzzard we'd seen regularly the last few weeks, he/she had been parading about the 18th fairway in search of worms the last twice we'd had a game so I headed up and around the 18th tee as I figured it would be sitting around there.

Well after wandering about for an hour or so three Roe Deer shot past me, you can clearly see one here ....:D

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Cursing my luck at not getting a decent shot I headed back in the direction of the car as I had noticed two people walking their dogs, no doubt the reason the deer were startled, having seen them, I changed direction in an effort to ambush the deer as I guessed where they would appear next, and I was right - here is one of the results, a cracker isn't it :puke:

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Hotly pursued by ....

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So feeling pretty disappointed at having nothing for my efforts I headed back to the car and set off home, I was just exiting the car park when I spotted my original quarry sitting in a young sycamore tree in the adjacent car park, bloody typical I thought, I'd wandered about for the last hour and a half in freezing conditions and there it was about 25 yards away sitting 6 foot off the ground. I quickly got the window down and fired off a couple of quick shots hand-held, however it was sitting with it's back to me I decided to chance my luck and edged the car round in front of it to get a better angle, it never even flinched, possibly because of the cold it was happier just sitting conserving energy, after firing off a few more shots I decided to really push my luck and get out of the car so I could rest the lens on the roof, no problem fired off a few there too, it even let me lean the lens on the bonnet, at this point I was about 30ft way and it just sat there quite happy.

Here are some of the results, the first three are slight crops and PP'd in Lightroom, #4 is totally unedited. I hope you like enjoy them as much as I did taking them.




#1
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Canon 1D Mark II - Sigma 500mm F4.5 EX - ISO 200 - 1/80th at F4.5



#2
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Canon 1D Mark II - Sigma 500mm F4.5 EX - ISO 200 - 1/80th at F4.5



#3
427250180_73Lu3-XL.jpg

Canon 1D Mark II - Sigma 500mm F4.5 EX - ISO 200 - 1/80th at F4.5



#4 - Full Frame Unedited
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Canon 1D Mark II - Sigma 500mm F4.5 EX - ISO 200 - 1/30th at F8.0



Thanks for looking,

Mike.
 
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Fantastic , I think the closeness has captured the real character of this bird , its very refreshing to see a truly wild bird .
 
Nicely told tale of woe, and what a surprise to see the beautiful end result, well done :clap:
 
What a beauty :clap:
Cracking shots (y)
 
Mike you did a grand job, also noticed the shutter speeds 80th & 30th well done. (y)
 
Your buzzard shots are superb...the coldness isn't always a bad thing :D

Why must people be so disrespectful to wildlife and let their dogs chase it? It angers me!
 
Excellent pics of the Buzzard. Hundreds of them around where I stay but I can't get near them to get photos of the quality of yours. Brilliant, well done(y)(y)
 
Hi,

thanks for all the comments, I have to admit to being well chuffed with these shots, I'm just sorry I didn't have any food to leave him as a thank you, I searched on the way back to the house for some roadkill to take back but saw nought.

Will try again later in the week and see if I can get some action shots.

Mike.
 
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Cracking shots(y)
 
I love the first buzzard shot, congratulations, that is something special.
 
that was well worth the wait, well done! superb shots of the bird(y)
 
That first buzzard is a belter (y) And i like the impressionistic roe deer :)
 
Yep, buzzard #1 is nice. He/she looks very relaxed and has quite an unmenacing look considering it's a bird of prey :)

Must have made the trip very worthwhile in the end :)
 
Hi,

thanks again for all the praise, I have printed one out to A4 and its looks great, I might order a larger print for the wall (y)

Mike.
 
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