Post by Mark Itol on Jul 13, 2010 3:41:43 GMT
(Pardon the rather grim title)
Hello everyone. I haven't had much time to shoot feathers lately, and as I was organizing some old captures, I came across this set which I thought I'd like to share. This is a series of photos depicting nature at work in the ponds of San Juan, Batangas. Please bear with the IQ, I hope these are good enough for a documentary. These photos were taken last January 2 during a birding sortie with sirs Bong, Rey, Bert, and Doc Mando.
It was an overcast morning in this Batangas birding favorite and the birds were scarce. The gang decides to stay under one of the sheds by the side of a pond and wait for the conditions to improve, mindful of every feather movement around the perimeter.
Carefreely swimming in the draining waters of the pond are two cute little ducklings -- "rubber duckies" as we jokingly referred to. We continued waiting.
Above are some fliers -- egrets, herons, stilts, plovers, sandpipers, crows, and this raptor (which is for ID, by way), scouting the area. It would disappear in the distance and reappear several minutes later.
It returns and hovers gracefully high above the pond until it makes a drastic change in its course and starts plummeting fast, heading towards something at the other side of the pond.
Then suddenly it spreads it wings as if to stop, turns its head and sees one of the "rubber duckies" taking a sip at the water's edge.
Fast and agile, it goes down to close the distance between it and the unfortunate duckling.
Sadly the poor duckling doesn't even seem to realize that danger is within a few feet away. Even if it does, it would be too late.
Without a fight, the raptor easily grabs its quarry and starts administering death through its powerful talons. An easy meal.
We didn't actually realize it was the duckling who fell prey to the hunter until we reviewed the images on our camera's LCDs. We were somehow shocked to find out that one of the cute yellow balls of feather which looked so peaceful earlier was turned into predator's meal in just a few seconds. But then, that's nature.
The drama took place at the other side of the pond, around 50 meters away. Had we anticipated the event, we could have probably found ourselves in the middle of the pond, feet soaked in mud and water.
All shots were taken with 40D + 400/5.6 L.
Thanks for viewing.
Hello everyone. I haven't had much time to shoot feathers lately, and as I was organizing some old captures, I came across this set which I thought I'd like to share. This is a series of photos depicting nature at work in the ponds of San Juan, Batangas. Please bear with the IQ, I hope these are good enough for a documentary. These photos were taken last January 2 during a birding sortie with sirs Bong, Rey, Bert, and Doc Mando.
It was an overcast morning in this Batangas birding favorite and the birds were scarce. The gang decides to stay under one of the sheds by the side of a pond and wait for the conditions to improve, mindful of every feather movement around the perimeter.
Carefreely swimming in the draining waters of the pond are two cute little ducklings -- "rubber duckies" as we jokingly referred to. We continued waiting.
Above are some fliers -- egrets, herons, stilts, plovers, sandpipers, crows, and this raptor (which is for ID, by way), scouting the area. It would disappear in the distance and reappear several minutes later.
It returns and hovers gracefully high above the pond until it makes a drastic change in its course and starts plummeting fast, heading towards something at the other side of the pond.
Then suddenly it spreads it wings as if to stop, turns its head and sees one of the "rubber duckies" taking a sip at the water's edge.
Fast and agile, it goes down to close the distance between it and the unfortunate duckling.
Sadly the poor duckling doesn't even seem to realize that danger is within a few feet away. Even if it does, it would be too late.
Without a fight, the raptor easily grabs its quarry and starts administering death through its powerful talons. An easy meal.
We didn't actually realize it was the duckling who fell prey to the hunter until we reviewed the images on our camera's LCDs. We were somehow shocked to find out that one of the cute yellow balls of feather which looked so peaceful earlier was turned into predator's meal in just a few seconds. But then, that's nature.
The drama took place at the other side of the pond, around 50 meters away. Had we anticipated the event, we could have probably found ourselves in the middle of the pond, feet soaked in mud and water.
All shots were taken with 40D + 400/5.6 L.
Thanks for viewing.
