Peregrine sudden appearance DX for shore birds to FX in a flash

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Ken Miracle

Ken Miracle

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On a typical smoky day this summer in Idaho. I was photographing and identifying some distant sandpipers using DX on Z9 with Z800 f/5.6 and they suddenly all exploded away.

It was one of many times I was gratefull for my one button toggle option on my lens. Without taking the camera from shooting position one button push and I was in FX ready for the speeding by Peregrine. I got in a few shots the last as it sped away in hot pursuit through some willows and trees.


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Ken Miracle said:
On a typical smoky day this summer in Idaho. I was photographing and identifying some distant sandpipers using DX on Z9 with Z800 f/5.6 and they suddenly all exploded away.

It was one of many times I was gratefull for my one button toggle option on my lens. Without taking the camera from shooting position one button push and I was in FX ready for the speeding by Peregrine. I got in a few shots the last as it sped away in hot pursuit through some willows and trees.
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These are great shots. I noticed you were shooting at 1/1250, yet the wings don’t seemed blurred. Were they gliding during these shots, do their wings flap at a slower speed or did you just happen to catch them at the right time?
 
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Ken Miracle said:
On a typical smoky day this summer in Idaho. I was photographing and identifying some distant sandpipers using DX on Z9 with Z800 f/5.6 and they suddenly all exploded away.

It was one of many times I was gratefull for my one button toggle option on my lens. Without taking the camera from shooting position one button push and I was in FX ready for the speeding by Peregrine. I got in a few shots the last as it sped away in hot pursuit through some willows and trees.


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Excellent Ken! Well done👍👍👍
 
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Elbert said:
Nice capture! Was the smoke turning the light yellowish? The Peregrine colours look warmer than I would expect them to be.
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The immatures and juveniles are significantly darker and warmer than the adults and some morphs/subspecies are warmer, but the smoke has most subjects warmer like golden hour light does.

We have had smoke created light for weeks on end this summer. Natural Light Auto WB in the Z9 does a pretty good job most of the time with it but if it has early morning golden hour light along with the smoke then Cloudy can be the way to go. The smoke varies significantly not just in amount but where it is in the air column and if it is mostly grass and brush or includes pines etc.. . This day it was a mixed bag of fuels and started 100 yards over head and ended with some smoke all the way to the ground and getting thicker as it went up.

More info about them here.
www.allaboutbirds.org

Peregrine Falcon Identification, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Powerful and fast-flying, the Peregrine Falcon hunts medium-sized birds, dropping down on them from high above in a spectacular stoop. They were virtually eradicated from eastern North America by pesticide poisoning in the middle 20th century. After significant recovery efforts, Peregrine...
www.allaboutbirds.org www.allaboutbirds.org
 
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PhilG said:
These are great shots. I noticed you were shooting at 1/1250, yet the wings don’t seemed blurred. Were they gliding during these shots, do their wings flap at a slower speed or did you just happen to catch them at the right time?
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A bit of every thing. Slower than normal shutter speed due to the low light from the smoke. 20 frames per second gives you a lot of choices. Peregrines hunting climb (fastest wing speeds) dive (essentially no wing speed) and glide very little wing speed with wings more for directional control at that point as what you see in the last image. Panning is usually the biggest challenge with these high speed hunters.
 
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Ken Miracle said:
A bit of every thing. Slower than normal shutter speed due to the low light from the smoke. 20 frames per second gives you a lot of choices. Peregrines hunting climb (fastest wing speeds) dive (essentially no wing speed) and glide very little wing speed with wings more for directional control at that point as what you see in the last image. Panning is usually the biggest challenge with these high speed hunters.
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Thanks for the explanation. I get the 20 frames per second, I shot a flying hawk one time at 1/800 and there was one shot of my pan where I caught it exactly right so the wings were okay.
 
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