Taken through window. He struck at a flock of doves at the bird feeder resulting in a mini snow storm of pin-feathers. I was looking at the doves when he struck but only saw the feathers falling and then wings. When the wings came back and flew into my tree, I got this photo through the bedroom window, Then I immediately went outside - but he was gone.

Coyote Hills Regional Park

Fremont, CA

Thanks for your visit, faves and/or comments.

Debated between Cooper's hawk and Sharp-shinned hawk. Had settled on Cooper's hawk but was happy to be corrected as it is a lifer for me. It was perched on a branch overlooking a large bird feeder and was not at all bothered by my presence.

Male Common Kingfisher.

Photographed at home, Yakima County, Washington. As always, I have difficulty distinguishing juvenile Sharp-shinned and Cooper's Hawk so I could be incorrect. IMG_4505

Waubansee County, Kansas

Photographed at home, Yakima County, Washington. As always, I have difficulty distinguishing juvenile Sharp-shinned and Cooper's Hawk so I could be incorrect. If the same bird, this bird has been here 3 times already this morning. I photographed it twice but still haven't got a photo that doesn't have distracting branched in it.

IMG_4500

Sharp pocket computers, PC1350 and PC1360. These were the only two PC13XX models released by Sharp in 1984 and 1987. Both had 4 lines of 24 characters and were very capable in their day for BASIC programming, graphing, etc.

The key differences between the two were increased memory, an additional RAM port, as well as improved BASIC and faster CPU in the PC1360.

Calidris acuminata, with Least Sandpiper in foreground.

Morro Bay salt marsh as a 6.2 ft. tide was receding,

Seen from marina boardwalk,

Morro Bay, California

The bird had been found the previous day at about high tide by Kilian Hampl and identified by Will Knowlton. This species breeds in northeast Asia and after a long migration, winters in southeast Asia and Australasia. A few birds migrate down the other side of the Pacific Ocean and it is considered a rare autumn migrant in North America.

www.texastargetbirds.com

Yesterday I had an opportunity to spend the morning out at Smith Point for the hawk watch and it ended up being a great experience with plenty of raptors seen and photographed. This young Sharp-shinned Hawk flew right over us at close range and definitely checked us out.

_MG_0127-web

Accipiter striatus

Taken @ 30mm with a cheap 2x TC and the canon 1.4x to make 840mm LOL

This looks like a sharp-shinned to me. Cannot say who it's victim was.

Sharp-tailed Grouse are frequent visitors to my bird feeder. They nibble on the sunflower seeds that fall on the ground under a big evergreen tree. Unfortunately there is a very domineering little red squirrel who seems to think that he is the czar of the bird feeder and he comes flying out of nowhere to chase them away.

(taken from a window)

Manitoba - Canada

Have a mouth as sharp as a dagger,

but a heart as soft as tofu.

(Chinese Proverb)

Weekly Theme Challenge - Something Fluffy

Looking close... on Friday! - Combination of Soft & Sharp

(photo by Freya, edit by me)

Thanks for views, faves and comments!

This hawk is a frequent visitor to the yard and at times spends hours waiting for the birds to come in to feed

... alternative

Cooper's Hawk

Accipiter cooperii

A visitor to my back yard early this past fall. I think it sees me, I am lucky to have not spooked it.

So, Sharpie or Coop? The top blocks of the retaining wall it landed on are about three inches thick, putting the bird at roughly 12-14 inches head to tail. The tail appears to be rather squared off, plus the streaking looks more like Sharp-shinned rather than Cooper's. All things considered I'm calling it a Sharpie. What do you think?

CORRECTION: A couple sharp-eyed Flickr friends provided evidence that this hawk is a Cooper's, not a Sharp-shinned. See the comments below. I stand corrected.

View large

Grand Traverse County, Michigan

Just look at the toes on those feet.

shot with an olympus om-d e-m10 mark ii—720nm infrared converted—and the 14-42mm electric zoom (ez) kit lens--with a raynox dcr-250 close-focusing diopter

Today I photographed most of bird species that visited my backyard. The highlights were Anna's Hummingbird and a Sharp-shinned Hawk. Also seen and photographed were Downy Woodpecker, Dark-eyed Juncos, House Finches, American Goldfinches, House Sparrows, Black-capped Chickadees, White-crowned Sparrows. I also saw an American Kestrel, Eurasian Collared Doves, and just before dark a Song Sparrow.

I have seen this bird before. It has a small patch of yellow on it's throat.

This morning it killed and ate a Dark-eyed Junco. It returned early afternoon for a photo shoot or maybe it returned for lunch.

IMG_9121

I found this bird in my backyard yesterday (10/31) eating a Halloween treat. The prey may have been a Dark-eyed Junco. Unfortunate for the junco but the hawk has to eat. Although it is hard to tell from the photo the hawk was under the canopy of a shrub on a dark mostly cloudy day so the shutter speed was slow and the photos are not as sharp as I would like. Yakima County, Washington. IMG_9526

Sharpness

Credits: ↝ тмσ ↜

Coyote teeth, very sharp also. Taxidermy.

Werribee

Victoria, Australia

for the Macro Mondays challenge “Sweet Spot Squared” (September 19th 2016)

I like a little sharp and tangy taste with my sugar, so I chose raspberries ;o)

Finding and shooting the sweet spot!

I've got 3 macro 1:1 lenses now - but when I started out there was only one to fit my new Sony NEX-6, and it was Sony's eMount 30mm/3.5. That was March 2013, and I learned macro work through that lens for the next 2 years. So that was the lens I chose for this challenge.

I shoot macro in Manual, and have never explored the 'sweet spot' before - so I followed Janet's directions and used Aperture mode and shot all 17 F stop settings the lens has on two 2cm raspberries. I scattered sugar granules of various sizes both in front and behind the raspberries, to give me an idea of just how the overall image sharpness changes with the F/stop change.

Comparing the shots I used Janet's direction again: "You will be looking for the shot that has the sharpest details with as little blurring as possible". I thought it would be simple - F22 is the inevitable choice to offer minimal blurring, while keeping the subject in focus.

But I found a puzzling oddity. From F16 through to F22 the sharpness of the background elements increased, but the sharpness of the 'in focus' elements fell off. I repeated the experiment with a strawberry (a much larger subject) and the same result emerged - past F16 the 'in focus' elements of the shot suffered!

I went online to see if I could find an explanation. And the trusty B&H website came through with an article:

www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/content/rules-thumb-finding-...

I needed to compromise and take 2 or 3 stops back from F22 to find the best balance. There was little to choose between F16 and F18. This shot uses F16. And yes - I did then crop the original shot I used, to highlight the main raspberry, and leaving out most of the background sugar 'scatter'.

I hope it hits the sweet spot with you too :o)

Following on from the discussion Where do you draw the line? I've taken an old credit card as my guide, which is 3"x2" and added measures in cm too. I do SO hope that this will become the standard for Macro Mondays! My 2 raspberries are set on this 'new' format for my regular establishing shot in the first comment field

My 2016 Macro Mondays set: 2016 Macro Mondays

My Food and drink set: Food and Drink

Sharp Airlines is a locally based regional carrier.

Jan Palach Memorial in Prague, Czechia

More information about the monument here.

Sharp and soft

Credits: elprobadordesl.blogspot.com/2019/05/first-shadows-sharpne...

Albany Entertainment Centre

...and the path from Mousethwaite coomb.

Or woman, as the sexes look very similar (apparently the male's bill is longer than the female's).

I can't go too long without posting a shot of the dazzling Collared Aracari - a member of the Toucan family.

Taken in the Caribbean Foothills of Costa Rica during a rain shower.

This was an experiment to see how altering the settings on the camera affected the sharpness of the bee.