2019 Favorites (21)
Read MorePeregrine Falcon - Juvenile eating fledgling Common Tern
I'd just started onto the sand when an early morning walker told me there was a hawk feeding on something two hundred yards ahead. I hustled down the beach to find this scene, and I scrambled to get my rig out of my backpack, assemble it, and close the 100-yard distance between the falcon and me. Using a combination of walking and crawling, I maneuvered to within 20 yards of the bird just as the sun cracked the dunes behind me. The pinkish rays illuminated the scene perfectly, and I was able to crack off a few frames before the falcon was pushed off by a pair of mobbing terns. Had the terns arrived a minute earlier or the sun a minute later, this shot would not have been possible. You can see the sun peeking over the dunes in the reflection in the bird's eye!
Nickerson Beach, Nassau County, Long Island, New York. 8/8/19
Canon 600mm f/4 IS II + 1.4x III on EOS 1DX Mark II
1/1000 at f/5.6, ISO 1600
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