Osprey v Peregrine Falcon

I had just finished photographing the tree swallows at the Marine Nature Study Area in Oceanside, Long Island, NY and spotted something out of the corner of my eye. I looked up and saw what appeared to be two osprey riding the currents very high in the sky and dog fighting. I took photos as it was interesting behavior. As they started to get lower I realized that one was a falcon and as the osprey came down, falcon stayed up till it made a full speed dive buzzing the osprey that turned to avoid the attack. If the falcon wanted, it could have taken the osprey out of the sky. With the osprey out of it's way the falcon made two passes near me one very close and super fast.

1) When the falcon was low enough to ID
X-H2S NIKON AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens 500mm f/5.6 1/1700s 400 ISO +1.3 EV

2) The falcon closing on the osprey
X-H2S NIKON AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens 500mm f/5.6 1/1700s 400 ISO +1.3 EV

3) The falcon has passed the osprey and is closer
X-H2S NIKON AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens 500mm f/5.6 1/1700s 400 ISO +1.3 EV

4) They separate
X-H2S NIKON AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens 500mm f/5.6 1/1700s 400 ISO +1.3 EV

5) Both start climbing
X-H2S NIKON AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens 500mm f/5.6 1/1600s 400 ISO +1.3 EV

6) The falcon passes in the distance
X-H2S NIKON AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens 500mm f/5.6 1/1700s 400 ISO +1.3 EV

7) And then it races past me at full speed, wow!
X-H2S NIKON AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens 500mm f/5.6 1/1250s 400 ISO +1.3 EV

Comments and suggestions welcome,

Morris

Wow, that may be the ultimate! That series made my day, what beautiful birds, and what great photography! Seriously, thanks for sharing something that special. Just for curiosity, did the eye focus make a huge difference?

Thank you,

The 40 FPS did much more in capturing great moments. What eye focus did was save me work so I could pay more attention to tracking the action and adjusting exposure. For flight images, subject detection is not a huge benefit, particularly the sky when there is noting else to for the camera to focus on. It is a huge benefit when the subject needs to be pulled out of the sene.

Morris

This is exactly the reason I upgraded to the R7 after just one year with my G9. If you can acquire focus quickly there is a lot more time to compose and make adjustments. I got a lot of 'almost good' shots with my G9 because all I could focus on was the focus.