Making Lemonade out of Lemons: A Kite Fight

Bi_BkSKte_1049.jpgTwice in the last 20 years an irruption of rodents has caused an explosion in the number of raptors hunting in Half Moon Bay near my house. The result is an amazing photographic opportunity.

Unfortunately the opportunity comes with a couple really large problems. First, many days are very hot so the heat shimmer ruins a large portion of the images. Fortunately a methodical check of the weather stations in the area can provide a heads up on this. More insidious is the fog. Even with webcams nearby the fog can roll in just as quickly as the light gets good in the evening.

That is what happened to me the other night. The fog blew in and out as the sun got to the perfect height for evening photography. It seemed a shame to leave after the travel to get there and with all the nearby raptors, so I decided to hang out and hope for the best.

I realized that any type of raptor behavior in the fog would look much better than either a simple bird portrait or even a bird in flight. So I lugged my gear over closer to an area with several Black-shouldered Kites that seemed to be jostling for the best hunting turf.

Sure enough, two of them went up and at it. I was thankful that the vertical grip on my D700 gave me 8fps, and that my 300x Lexar card would write the images just about as fast as I could shoot. Nothing could overcome the fog so I was not going to get the shot of a lifetime, but as you can see from the accompanying image, the shape and pattern of the birds wrestling in the sky was impressive enough to warrant the effort.