For a moment he sized me up (digiscope sytlee)!
Suddenly it broke from its perch,
and fled beneath the buildings. I scanned the skies for why. Over on Riverside Church, I spotted the reason. The resident male peregrine, perched on a scaffold--less spire!
Roughly .57miles by Google Earths ruler. As it scanned its terrain, I noticed more tight groups of fearful starlings, all murmuring in the peregrine's direction. Both they and I failed to notice when an adult RTH darted in low down St. Nicholas Ave! I watched amazed as it threaded through a roof top trying to trap a confused bird. As it recovered, I managed to get my camera up to my eye.
Unfortunately my autofocus was not as quick to react.
I suspect the low contrast ratio confused it, so I got a few cool blurry pix...
but as it banked back towards the light of Hancock Park,
the canon EOS AF found the range!
One of my best wild red-tailed hawk shots yet.
So in the space of 30 minutes...three amazing raptor sequences. The only obstacle were the conditions: 30F w 20mph wind, but to the hunters of the sky, its perfect.
