How cool is this guy ?

So, this is a Coopers Hawk, which lives very close to the entrance of one of my favorite stomping grounds.

What's funny, is that he (or she... not sure) was sitting about 20ft high, in limbs that almost hang out over the road... so in other words, it was sitting there, for however long, with people, kids, "dogs" all walking right underneath it, but apparently, as long as nobody took notice of it, it was fine

Then Fish Chris comes along, eyes everywhere but the trail ahead of me... and I see something.... whoa.. pan back... Ha ! Of course, as soon as I backed up and lifted the camera, it started getting nervous.... then it jumped and flew in a big circle.

And BTW, you might have heard me complain about the AF on my old T1i.... but to be honest, in this photo, I think it hit about as good as it could have, but instead, it was just a fairly heavy crop. No substitute for closeness, right ?

So what I'm saying is, this is more for the bird... less for the shot. Just gorgeous though, right ?

Peace,

Fish

Edit: During a search on Coopers Hawks, I saw one shot very similar to mine, in the pose, and in the bird itself, and the photographer chose to crop it almost square, cutting it off nearly as close to the birds face, as it was to its tail ?

Hmmm. Certainly saw more of the awesome bird, and less blank sky ?

Keeping in mind, that as I said, this is a heavy crop, so obviously I could have cropped it any way I wanted... How would you crop such a shot ? Tough, right ?