Late afternoon magic

I received a call from my friend Steve Davey about 15:00 yesterday, just as I got home from doing the grocery shopping. He was calling me from Bushells Lagoon, a place I recently sent him and lady partner Shirley Clarke to as it is a rocking waterhole indeed. He exclaimed that there were five White-bellied Sea Eagles and about five or so Whistling Kites about and the light/wind combination was perfect. It is always best to capture flying birds with the light and wind coming from behind you. My beautiful and generous wife said: "Just go." like that. Needless to say she didn't have to say it twice.

ALL IMAGE DETAILS: Canon EOS 30D, 300mm f/4L IS USM lens with 1.4x converter, Av mode, ISO400, handheld, f/8, 1/2000th

I arrived about 40 minutes later and was greeted by perfect, late warm sun and a howling NW wind of about 30 knots. The birds were flying indeed. Sadly, not much happened with Whistling Kites, but I have a ripper shot from about two weeks before. So I was there to catch as much as possible before the light was ready to drop behind the mountains in about one hour's time.

Within minutes I noted the Black-shouldered Kite (Elanus axilaris) hovering up near Ernie's turf farm on the north side. It was about 30m away from the fence and we were able to run up the slope, using the trees as cover to capture it hovering almost at eye level. See the images below. I wish I had a super telephoto to get it much tighter as I was forced to crop these images by about 40%.

See ya in the wild!