Wow, today I released two Swainson's Hawks, an adult, BUNNY, and an immature of last year, DEE. This was probably one of the best releases of all those I've put back into the wild. My friend Joyce, holding BUNNY, and I were joined by Matthew Riebel, a man I met at our local Audubon meeting on Thursday night. He had asked if he could come along and watch the release.
As usual, I took along my Nikon D80 to record the event and asked Matt if he would do the honors while Joyce and I tossed the birds in the air. At that time I didn't know of his profession. He pulled out a larger camera so mine went back into the truck. After the release I was watching the birds fly around in circles above us when I turned around and was amazed to see Matt holding the same camera but with a lens attached that must have been three feet long. He is a professional wildlife photographer and it was with the greatest of luck we met at the meeting.
Some of his photos were taken with the birds soaring so high that to look away meant you couldn't find them in the sky again. In the shot with the two birds together, BUNNY was much higher so she's out of focus. The bird below her is actually a redtail that happened to soar overhead and joined the group.
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