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Ankle turner

Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus), Schertz, Texas, February 5, 2011, at 11:20 a.m., by Lora Render

Published: August 26, 2011
Fieldcraft: Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus), by Lora Render
Subscriber and photographer Lora Render was driving to 190-acre Crescent Bend Nature Park, in the floodplain of Cibolo Creek, northeast of San Antonio, Texas, when she saw a Red-shouldered Hawk. It was perched on a cedar post on the opposite side of the road, so she pulled around, parked just off the road, and exited her car with her camera up.

Then she started walking slowly toward the hawk. Render was so fixated on the bird that she didn’t see a dip in the side of the road, and she tumbled down, camera and all. When she righted herself again, her Canon seemed fine, but her ankle was sprained.

She figured all the commotion was certain to scare away the hawk, but it was still there. She sensed it was about to fly, however, and anticipated the direction it would go. As soon as she raised and focused her camera, the bird took off. She took this great shot and six others.
Equipment used
Camera: Canon EOS 7D, handheld
Lens: Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM, focal length 400mm
Settings: ISO 320, 1/2500, f/5.6, aperture priority AE, center-weighted average metering, AI Servo AF, peripheral illumination correction enabled, high-speed continuous shooting drive mode
Light: Natural, no flash
Format: JPG
Adjustments: Cropped 30% in Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0
Lora Render
Meet the photographer
STOPS FOR BIRDS: Lora Render is a BirdWatching subscriber and an avid bird photographer. We’ve named three of her photos — Northern Cardinal, Orange-crowned Warbler, and Red-legged Honeycreeper — as our Photo of the Week. When Lora isn’t stopping for hawks on the side of the road, she works as a real-estate appraiser in San Antonio, Texas.
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