Hawk Eating a Pigeon in my driveway

Tee Why

I'm not a birder, but basically, I was pulling into the driveway to my carport after work, when this hawk was trying to eat this pigeon. It must be used to the city life as I had to almost run over it to make it move. So it flew a bit down the driveway so I can park without running over them both.

Unfortunately, it was in the shade and with my bigma on the 30D I was shooting around ISO 1250 at 500mm at about 1/250 or so, so not optimal settings. The shadow made for poor lighting and the glare off the asphalt was pretty high too. I could have used flash, but I was about 15 feet with the bigma at 500mm (so I can fill the frame and not crop after wards) and didn't want to scare/disturb the bird.So I decided to process the colors out for a supersaturated look, as unprocessed, it looked very dull and flat.

I processed in both DPP and RSP as the lighting was tricky out of the 11 I liked, 6 were processed with DPP and 5 with RSP. The RSP shots, I touched up in DPP (JPEG versions) for a bit more pop and then the usual dodge/burn/pop out the eyes in PS.

c/c welcome, whole gallery here. http://tomyi.smugmug.com/gallery/1597535#135661811

1. tastes like chicken


2. Looking into the camera


3. Yup, tastes like chicken


4. tiny morsel


5. Needs a dental floss


6. Happy hawk

cmason

sorry no pics are showing in your post

Maestro

I went to your gallery. You have some nice shots. It looks like a Cooper's Hawk or possibly a Red Shouldered Hawk. I'm not sure.

Dick on Aruba

Nice series! I think you did well with pp.

Thanks for sharing,

Dick.

Art Scott

Still no photos
Still no photos in your post...

wxwax

Tee, you must have turned off external links for that gallery.

You need to turn them on for us to see your piccies of a mean eagle eating a poor little pigeon in your driveway.

saurora

Looks like a Cooper's Hawk and the pigeon.......well, let's say I couldn't Idenitify him any longer!

Tee Why

wxwax wrote:

Tee, you must have turned off external links for that gallery.

You need to turn them on for us to see your piccies of a mean eagle eating a poor little pigeon in your driveway.

Sorry, turned it back on.

The meal was a pigeon, I never saw it's head but it was definately a pigeon, there is one interesting shot where it was eating it's stringly intestine, but I thought it was a bit too graphic, so I left it out.

dbaker1221

great series!! I'd say cooper hawk also

Tee Why

What's a Cooper's Hawk BTW, and do they live in LA???
In the years I've lived in Pasadena, I don't remember seeing a hawk ever.

ShepsMom

Nice pictures!! Where is Harry? He'd be jealous!!rofl

raptorcaptor

Cool shots! Either an adult sharp-shinned, or adult cooper's hawk!

Maestro

Tee Why wrote:

What's a Cooper's Hawk BTW, and do they live in LA???
In the years I've lived in Pasadena, I don't remember seeing a hawk ever.

A Cooper's Hawk is smaller hawk that primarily feeds on other smaller birds as opposed to the more common and larger Red Tailed Hawk that primarily feeds on small mammals and reptiles, but will take a bird every once and a while. However, now that Glenn mentioned a sharp-shinned hawk that well could be what it is. It's definitely not a red shouldered hawk.

Tee Why

Maestro wrote:

A Cooper's Hawk is smaller hawk that primarily feeds on other smaller birds as opposed to the more common and larger Red Tailed Hawk that primarily feeds on small mammals and reptiles, but will take a bird every once and a while. However, now that Glenn mentioned a sharp-shinned hawk that well could be what it is. It's definitely not a red shouldered hawk.

I've never seen them around LA/Pasadena area before. It seemed so comfortable with cars and people, I was a bit amazed as I shot this bird from about 15 to 20 feet away.

Tee Why

Here is a link to a more gruesome shot where it's eating the pigeon's guts.
I didn't want to leave the shot here for the more sensitive folks.

This one has a less processed look too.
http://tomyi.smugmug.com/gallery/1597535#135907289