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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
I couldn't catch any shots of a rare falcon last summer, so I took pictures of the birders instead.
I was on Martha's Vineyard, visiting my mom, and all I heard once I'd landed was "Have you seen the bird yet?". It seems a rare (unheard of in the Eastern U.S.), red-footed falcon had made its way across the Atlantic, and had been hanging around on the island, perhaps for weeks, unnoticed. I'd been on the island for a couple of days, intending to go see the bird if I could at some point, and thought I would have a little more time, but an unexpected storm started brewing, and there were rumours the ferry might not leave the next morning (when I was scheduled), so I decided to leave a day early.
I still had a little time to kill, so I drove out to the Katama Airport to see if I could get a look at the falcon. There were hundreds of birders there, some from as far away as California.
Right after I arrived, I heard several "Oooh's" and "Ahhh's" from the crowd, and I followed their finger-pointing to a small bird, high in the air. I spotted it in my lens and focused, snapping off a couple of shots before I lost it. I'm pretty sure it wasn't the falcon. It looked too dark, and was bigger than it should have been. I'll post a copy of one of those shots in a workshop. Maybe a few of the experts here can verify that it wasn't.
The falcon was supposedly in the air the whole time I was there. I didn't have any binoculars, and my camera only has a 200mm lens (plus 1.6 multiplier), so I wasn't able to get any shots or good looks at it. Unfortunately, I was only able to stay for a couple of hours, before I had to leave. I apparently arrived in between the falcon's two major resting periods each day (at which point it would often rest on airport signs near the runway -- posing for photographers). Even if I didn't get a chance to spot the falcon, it was still fun to see the excitement on everyone's faces.
Red-Footed Falcon Article |
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