European Kestrel nesting on a balcony


Posted by Alexandre Vaz on Sat Sep 06, 2003 1:17 pm

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This is my first image post @ NSN!

Some of you might have seen another image from the same series in another forum. I followed this family who bread on a 10th flor in Lisbon, and I've published a small Geographica in National Geographic Portugal. If very thing goes as planed the story will come out soon in the Israeli edition to. This image wasn't included in the piece.
The remote camera was on the floor of the balcony and the female was incubating 5 beautiful eggs while looking for the window were I was standing. I tried to use two external flash units but they (the kestrels)didn't tolerated that close so I shot this with a built-in-flash :oops:
I might have cropped the OOF plants but I decided to leave them for you to see the the real set up.
The 5 eggs successfully hatched and all the 5 chicks flew out of the nest.
Image
Thanks for looking and commenting.

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by Chris Fagyal on Sat Sep 06, 2003 1:38 pm
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Wow, I love this. The Kestrel is super sharp, the catchlight in the eye, and everything just makes this superb. I don't mind the out of focus elements as I would rather see it as it was naturally. Very odd place for a Kestrel to nest, in a balcony, but apparently they were quite successful.

Great image!
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by Juli Wilcox on Sat Sep 06, 2003 3:58 pm
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Unbelievable! Sharp! And the angle is such that I am feeling privileged to be so close and get this view. I wouldn't change a thing. If you have a series of these, you might be able to put together a photo-essay as well as the article.
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by Bob Ettinger on Sat Sep 06, 2003 4:28 pm
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Really nice and a ton of work but worth it.
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by Alexandre Vaz on Sat Sep 06, 2003 4:47 pm
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I'm glad you liked this one, thanks for the kind comments.
I thought I might add that the sticks around the Kestrel were meant to avoid pigeons from breading on this place, but the kestrels managed to find enough room.
I removed a few sticks but I didn't moved the ones closer to the eggs to avoid the disturbance.
 

by E.J. Peiker on Sat Sep 06, 2003 5:34 pm
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Graet to see these very cool raptors having such a successful brood! The Kestrel is super sharp!
 

by Heather Forcier on Sat Sep 06, 2003 8:27 pm
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As has been said, sharp and I really like the angle for this shot. Glad to hear the five were all successful.
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by Jim Probst on Sun Sep 07, 2003 12:12 am
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Alexandre,

The sharpness and exposure are great! Outstanding job!
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by Neil Fitzgerald on Sun Sep 07, 2003 2:59 am
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love the low angle and it sure is sharp. I'm not a fan of the two catchlights but I know that is hard to avoid and the fill does look good.
 

by Jeremy on Sun Sep 07, 2003 8:57 am
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Alexandre, clone out one of the catchlights, and you have a super documentary image! Nice to know nature can co-exist with man.
 

by Sandy Mossberg on Sun Sep 07, 2003 10:27 am
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Beautiful image, Alexandre. Except for removing one catchlight, I wouldn't alter a thing.
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by NDCheryl on Sun Sep 07, 2003 3:22 pm
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Very cool intimate shot. Thanks for sharing.
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by Anthony Medici on Mon Sep 08, 2003 9:18 pm
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I would have liked to have known what camera/lens combination you used for this so that I could judge how hard it would have been to remove them without cropping. Also, I can't decide on the position of the bird in the frame and whether I would have tried to move it some where else in the frame.
The detail on the bird and the entire event is fantastic. You got very lucky here!
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