An Unwelcome Visitor

_DSC7763 topaz nx crop 72dpi, originally uploaded by Donnie Fulks.

Had some ruffled feathers yesterday at the nest. The female had just landed with the male close behind with a fish when another pair tried to stop in. The female of our pair (on the left) was having none of it and drove the other away. Our pair was so agitated they did not even look at the fish he brought for several minutes. Seems they feared another unwanted visit. They were tense and continued to scan the sky for some time before settling down to eat.

I like the drama captured here. The sky was overcast so shutter speed was down lower than I'd like and the ISO much higher than usual for a daytime exposure. Using some Topaz filters followed by some NIK filters for the pop I was after. I'm finding spot metering and 3D tracking are working pretty well for these bird shots. To keep enough DOF for two birds f/6.7 or f/8 is working.