Birds of prey

frank

frank

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Spent a couple of hours at the Scottish Deer Centre in Fife yesterday

1: Indian Eagle Owl



2: Lift Off



3: In Flight




4: Peregrine Falcon, this is a seriously fast flying bird and I was lucky to catch this.



5: Harris Hawk

 
Nice shots! The Peregrines are incredibly fast when they stoop (dive) but I think I'm right in saying the fastest bird on the planet in level flight is the common old Mallard?
 
I think it the Mallard would be fastest too especially if he saw that Peregrine in his rear view. :)

Peregrine wins it for me an awesome bird and a splendid capture Frank (y)
 
Thanks guys, made the day more enjoyable getting some keepers
 
Harris Hawk does it for me !!

hope to get to Fife one day... what would be the best lens to use ? thanks
 
Great shots with #4 the pic of the bunch, is it not a saker falcon they have there im sure thats what they said last time i was there :thinking:
 
Yardbent said:
Harris Hawk does it for me !!

hope to get to Fife one day... what would be the best lens to use ? thanks
Click to expand...

I used the 100-400L here so I suppose a long lens would be useful. Having said that the birds were flying over a sort of arena so if your timing is spot on you could maybe get away with a shorter lens when the swoop in close to the ground. With the peregrine you would need to be REALLY good and fast to catch it swooping near the ground.:D
 
great shots, so difficult to get like this(y)
 
no.4 for me aswell just because i know how difficult it is to get a shot when any falcon is in the air.

im with macky though, to me its a saker falcon, although difficult to see from the picture the coloring looks more saker.

macky799 said:
Great shots with #4 the pic of the bunch, is it not a saker falcon they have there im sure thats what they said last time i was there :thinking:
Click to expand...
 
macky799 said:
Great shots with #4 the pic of the bunch, is it not a saker falcon they have there im sure thats what they said last time i was there :thinking:
Click to expand...

You could be right, I couldn't hear the lass very well so maybe I misheard her, looking at pics of the saker on the net seems to confirm it is the saker.
 
Great set! Peregrine and Harris for me (y)


CT said:
Nice shots! The Peregrines are incredibly fast when they stoop (dive) but I think I'm right in saying the fastest bird on the planet in level flight is the common old Mallard?
Click to expand...

I have a feeling you are correct CT
peregrines are actually quite slow in level flight
capable of catching a wood pigeon ( just about) and they hit around 40-45 mph
Its the classic tear drop stoop that they excel at (y)

Edit just found this quite interesting actually
 
Thanks for the comments guys, Cobra nice handy link, now bookmarked for future reference. Cheers
 
Very nice Frank.

The (Eurasian) Eagle Owl's name is Amber - you can ID her by the white patch on her beak.
 
The peregrines are very fast, BTW, I think it is a Saker or a Saker hybrid. (They're damned fast too!)

Great shots. I enjoy going to my local place - the Raptor Foundation. I'll post some up from there soon.

Here's a shot of a saker at the point of getting the lure:

PB051532.jpg
 
CT said:
Nice shots! The Peregrines are incredibly fast when they stoop (dive) but I think I'm right in saying the fastest bird on the planet in level flight is the common old Mallard?
Click to expand...
the peregrine is the fastest bird(animal) on the planet, regardless of what position it is in, it has been (recorded at over 250mph in stoop)
at no point did i say it was the fastest bird in level flight, but it is still the fastest animal (bird) on the planet.(y)
 
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scottthehat said:
the peregrine is the fastest bird(animal) on the planet, regardless of what position it is in, it has been (recorded at over 250mph in stoop)
at no point did i say it was the fastest bird in level flight, but it is still the fastest animal (bird) on the planet.(y)
Click to expand...

True enough but that was an "artificial" record attempt out of a balloon with a lure thrown out at around a couple of thousand feet IIRC.
As someone who flies long wings on a regular basis I can honestly say that
120-150 MPH in a stoop is more normal, I think that 180MPH (un aided)
is around the fastest "natural" tear-drop stoop recorded
 
I remember hearing something like 60mph was probably more typical of the speeds you see at the falconry shows - which is still pretty fast!

Andy
 
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