Kestrel, Merlin, and Red-tailed Hawk

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PhilG

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These are the first subjects I could find to test the 1.4TC with my Nikon Z800PF. The results were about what I expected.



The first subject was a Kestrel spotted in a short tree along the road in Cherry Creek State Park.
Nikon Z8, Nikon Z800PF, 1120mm, f9, 1/1600, ISO 1250, cropped to 6600x4400.
ZBH_9417-Edit-4K.jpg


The second subject was a Red-tailed Hawk (maybe a Swainson's) in a tall tree a decent distance from the road in Cherry Creek State Park.
Nikon Z8, Nikon Z800PF, 1120mm, f9, 1/1600, ISO 1100, cropped to 6000x4000.
ZBH_9474-Edit-4K.jpg



The third subject was a Merlin sitting on a post on the Wildlife Drive in Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. I hadn't seen a Merlin in a while, and it was nice enough to let me photograph it for 15 minutes, which let me try some different things and take lots of photographs.

Nikon Z8, Nikon Z800PF, 1120mm, f11, 1/1250, ISO 900, cropped to 6900x4600.
ZBI_0113-Edit-4K.jpg


Nikon Z8, Nikon Z800PF, 1120mm, f9, 1/3200, ISO 1250, cropped to 6900x4600.
ZBH_9841-Edit-4K.jpg
 
The reason I thought this was a Merlin is because I didn't see the classic downward bar on both sides of its face and there is a photo of a Merlin in "Merlin" that looks very much like the photo I included. But I did get a few bad out of focus images of it flying away that I didn't pay much attention to. When I look at those, I can see that bar being present, so I agree it's a prairie falcon. I took a photo of a prairie falcon years ago that made its identification much easier (see below).

_D808260-Enhanced-NR-4K.jpg
 
Super nice images! I notice you cropped to 6900x4600. I assumed this was much larger than allowed. Good to know.
I'm not sure what you mean by larger than allowed, unless you mean the site limit for images here. If that's what you mean, then you should understand that all of the images I post on this site are from my website and I embed them so that they don't have to be stored here also. I give this site a link to my website and typically a 4k version of the photo I'm linking. So if you enlarge my stuff here you still don't see it at 6900x4600, but 4k. What I was referring to was I cropped from 8256x5504 to 6900x4600 before loading it on my website. I believe if you went to my website and expanded the image you see it at 6900x4600 when you expand it.
 
Great shots. I live in CO but am out of state right now. I heard about and saw several pics with the nice frost. Good job getting that into your shots.
Thanks for the kind words. It was pretty cold, and the birds weren't moving around unless they felt you were too close. I should have took more time to get some landscape photos but I just wanted to test the Z800PF with the teleconverter to make sure the teleconverter was okay and I didn't need to return it. Seeing anything worth photographing was a bonus. I really enjoyed watching the Prairie Falcon but about 50% of my images were slightly out of focus, which bothers me as I had plenty of time to get a green box on the eye of the bird, which I now realize doesn't necessarily mean that's where it focused (or focused well).
 
Great shots. I live in CO but am out of state right now. I heard about and saw several pics with the nice frost. Good job getting that into your shots.
By the way, I think you provided this information before, but when you are in Colorado what places do you frequent when photographing? I'm always looking for suggestions.
 
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