BLACKWINGED KITE / SVARTVINGEGLENTE

D4s, 600 4,0, f/6,3, 1/1600, ISO 900

I am not the one to fall in love with glossy photographs of "divas & popstars" in fancy books and magazines …. but this time it was different !! Ever since I saw the picture of the "Goth Lady" for the first time … with the slim, clean look, the pale powdered face and the big, bottomless, brown eyes with excessive makeup inspired by Cleopatra and Siouxie & the Banshees (80`ies rock band) … I simply could not get this stunning appearance out of my mind. I was seriously "bewitched, bothered & bewildered" (Doris Day 60`ies song). After this overwhelming experience  I have spent time and used my network to figure out how I could possibly obtain an audience with the "devine lady", and this has been a true challenge due to the fact that she`s simply not very "available" …. but then all of a sudden : hard work and coincidence comes together and give me my desired opportunity for a date with :

The "Cult Queen".

The black winged kite (Elanus caerulens) has relatively recently (in ecological terms of time) spread into Europe from Africa and is now breeding in very few numbers on locations in Spain & Portugal +  Morocco, Algerie, Tunisia & Egypt. There is also recorded breedings in Southern France. 

The pictures are shot in Spain early May. The situation was the location of a nest, but since I don`t do nest photography, we were lucky to have the bird`s favorite perch where the male used to deliver food to the female to bring to the nest, where he used to enjoy his own meals and where he regularly did his "plumage makeover". As you can see all pictures are from this perch. I spent 12 hours in a nearby "hay-ball" with camera in quiet mode shooting only one-by-one shots (no rapid series exposures !) and with a fleece jacket wrapped around the camera to reduce camera noise. I did not dare to move my lens so flight shots were impossible.

A warm thank you to Dario Mesonero-Romanos & Jose David Gomez !

The female arrives to the perch to collect a mouse from the male

D4s, 600 4,0, f/5,6, 1/500, ISO 800 

D4s, 600 4,0, f/5,6, 1/500, ISO 800

D4s, 600 4,0, f/6,3, 1/1250, ISO 1250

D4s, 600 4,0, f/5,6, 1/640, ISO 450

D4s, 600 4,0, f/6,3, 1/1600, ISO 1000

D4s, 600 4,0, f/6,3, 1/1600, ISO 1000

D4s, 600 4,0, f/5,0, 1/400, ISO 640

D4s, 600 4,0, f/6,3, 1/1600, ISO 1250

D4s, 600 4,0, f/5,0, 1/400, ISO 720

D4s, 600 4,0, f/5,6, 1/400, ISO 800

D4s, 600 4,0, f/5,6, 1/400, ISO 900