Image of the week #1

This year I have decided that I need to get out and shoot more. So I decided to do a photo of the week. My goal is to post a decent picture every week that I am able. So here is my first weeks picture. This is a Cooper’s Hawk and was taken from my back yard, near my bird feeder. They prey on small birds, he was perched in an elm tree about 20 feet or so from my bird feeder. Taken with a 500mm f4 lens handheld on a Canon 1D IV.  This was taken from the back deck so there was not a lot of room to find a good shot but I managed to find without any trees or limbs in the way. He is resting on one foot and the other is being held up. The bird is looking towards the feeder. My feeder is generally very active, I have large flocks of house finches, goldfinches, and nutmeg mannikins that come by on a regular basis. During the winter I will also get lot of white crowned sparrows pecking around the feeder and I do get a California towhee on a regular basis. So plenty to interest the hawk.