North Atlantic Skyline - - Photographs from the west of Ireland (Galway, Mayo, Clare, Limerick, Roscommon and even Leitrim)

Killer on the loose

Insouciance - a young sparrowhawk keeps an eye on me in a suburban garden in Galway.

Camera=5D, lens=24-105mm@105, aperture=f4, speed=1/30, ISO1000, +1stop over-exposed, spot metered.

Sunday was a damn near perfect day, with glorious sunshine all across the west of Ireland. That evening, I was in a back garden in Knocknacarra, sipping wine and enjoying the warmth of a summer twilight. Something fluttering caught my eye as I was about to go indoors. The sparrow hawk was back.

It landed on a small tree next door and then dropped out of sight behind their fence. I nipped in, grabbed my camera and waited to see if it would reappear. After about 10 minutes, the bird alighted on the same bough. I began to slowly walk towards it, clicking away with every step. As you can see from the camera data , it was very dark (9.45 pm) and I was using a standard lens [yet again, my large zoom - that I bought specifically for bird shots - was unavailable - I had left it in my apartment]. When I got to within 5 or 6 yards, it flew off. Except it didn't fly away. Instead, it landed on a leylandii tree in the garden where I was standing. It let me get rather close before flying off [and it return to the garden next door after I went inside].

Looking for lunch...

Camera=5D, lens=24-105mm@105, aperture=f4.5, speed=1/400, ISO640, +1stop over-exposed, spot metered.

According to my Shell Guide to the Birds of Britain and Ireland, it is a male juvenile. And it has probably worked out that raiding bird-tables is easier than hunting the birds that feed at the tables. It didn't seem the least bit bothered by human presence (which might not be a good thing in the long run) - as long as I didn't get too close. Of course, now I just need it to turn up during the day when I have the big lens ready…

sparrowhawk, accipiter, nisus, salthill, knocknacarra, ireland, galway, irishblogs, photoblogs, photography, galwayblogs, monasette, north atlantic skyline,Canon, 5D, june, 2007

Posted by Monasette at June 5, 2007 10:45 PM