Northern Goshawk (wild) Videos Added


Stupendous rendition of a cool capture!
 
Beautiful (y), the eye is.............very eye catching :D
 
Cheers everyone. Got loads of shots of the female too that I will add at a later date.



You would never get in the hide Mark lol. Feet first in and out with a severe case of cramp on exit.

Would be good to see the female pics as they are often even more elusive than the males. Not a young bird either by the looks of it. Was the hide baited? Look forward to more pics of this guy and the female. My favourite bird.
 
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Would be good to see the female pics as they are often even more elusive than the males. Not a young bird either by the looks of it. Was the hide baited? Look forward to more pics of this guy and the female. My favourite bird.

Very minimal baiting Mark and by that I mean once a week at the very most which is why its taken so long (over 12 months!) to get anything decent. This morning was the first time it was baited since before Christmas so amazed to get both sexes in one session. Baiting Raptors on a daily basis is irresponsible in my eyes as they become dependant on it and it affects the Forest ecosystems in terms of prey numbers and excessive numbers of the target species fighting to hold the territory because of the easy pickings on offer. The bait I used was farm reared Pheasant for Human consumption from my local Game dealer so no road salt contamination, poison, disease or gunshot to worry about either.
 
Very minimal baiting Mark and by that I mean once a week at the very most which is why its taken so long (over 12 months!) to get anything decent. This morning was the first time it was baited since before Christmas so amazed to get both sexes in one session. Baiting Raptors on a daily basis is irresponsible in my eyes as they become dependant on it and it affects the Forest ecosystems in terms of prey numbers and excessive numbers of the target species fighting to hold the territory because of the easy pickings on offer. The bait I used was farm reared Pheasant for Human consumption from my local Game dealer so no road salt contamination, poison, disease or gunshot to worry about either.

Yeah thought it was pheasant going by the colour on the perch.A great site and a fantastic experience to be so close to these guys.Always been my favourite bird since i was young and only got to see my first ones in 2015 but never got anything near as good as this.Agree with the baiting and as long as its done so the bird doesn't get reliant on it then all good and it sounds like you have that well under control. Look forward to more of these and the female.
 
Thanks Jason. A lot of them are captive birds that are sadly being passed off as wild as they are so difficult to photograph in the field.

There was a guy in north Wales a while back offering hide hire but don't know what happened to him, a few people managed to get there... unfrotunalty I wasn't one of them
 
Another very nice image and even better being the female. Bet you couldnt believe your luck that you got an hour with her- thats impressive for a male never mind a female. What iso settings were you using at 1/15th? They look pretty clean so maybe push the iso up depending on your camera. Keep them coming.
 
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Another very nice image and even vetter being the female. Bet you couldnt belive your luck that you got an hour with her- thats impressive for a male never mind a female. What iso settings were you using at 1/15th? They look pretty clean so maybe push the iso up depending on your camera. Keep them coming.
She arrived at 8.15am and stayed on it until about 9.10am. He came straight down on it and fed for about half hour so was back in the car with 8GB of images by 10am :)

Its the first images I have taken with the 70d the wife bought me for Christmas so a nice bird to christen it with. The iso was 2500 and with low `in camera` noise reduction I am very happy with how it coped.
 
I bet you are Mike and rightly so. I had one land in a tree i was hiding under and searched for ages to find it and eventually looked up and it was 10-15 feet above me eating a pigeon. All my images were shooting upwards and i was happy just to see it. You have done so well with these and even better than your last images in the dark background. The best wild Gos i have seen so far. Congrats.
 
I bet you are Mike and rightly so. I had one land in a tree i was hiding under and searched for ages to find it and eventually looked up and it was 10-15 feet above me eating a pigeon. All my images were shooting upwards and i was happy just to see it. You have done so well with these and even better than your last images in the dark background. The best wild Gos i have seen so far. Congrats.
Cheers Mark. My only regret was making the schoolboy error of not familiarising myself with the video function on the new camera :(
 
Wow great shots very impressive and we'll deserved after the dedication it sounds like you put in (assume it was 12 months of your time rather than 12 months in general to get them to come). Excellent!
 
Wow great shots very impressive and we'll deserved after the dedication it sounds like you put in (assume it was 12 months of your time rather than 12 months in general to get them to come). Excellent!
Thanks. I originally tried back in December 2014 and had some success but knocked it on the head between early March and September 2015 to allow for the breeding season. They fledged one female chick last year. I then built a new hide overlooking an open area that they use for hunting with several plucking posts last September and baited very sporadically for the past few months. Yesterday was the first time I had anything decent.
 
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