As we happen te live across the street of the Nijmegen city park i'd wandered into the park to test my new Tamron lens. It was very crowded due to the visitors day at the local soccer team stadium (located in the park). To my surprise i noticed two juvenile tree falcons in the fields near an old farm beside the stadium. After quickly switching the Tamron lens for my 70-300 Canon lens i managed to take a few shots of one of these beautiful birds. The first shot was taken while "sneaking" up on the bird after the lens switch. Although it clearly noticed me it was kind enough to give me a small chance on taking the picture below.
After it noticed me it obviously flew away to a tree a bit further up ahead. It actually stayed there for quite a while allowing me to take a few more shots as it was screaming to its littermate.
[Canon EOS 450D, Canon 70-300 f4-5.6 IS USM, ISO 400, 300mm, f/5.6, 1/350 sec]
After a while it decided to fly away to a spot out of sight. As it flew away it was quite far away from my lens so I couldn't get the golden shot but at least it enabled me to take a picture of the bird in flight.
After that i more or less lost track of both birds although they were clearly somewhere in the area. So I removed the 70-300 lens and switched back to the Tamron 17-50 to take some more test pictures. Somewhat further in the park i actually found a site where one of these birds might enjoyed its lunch as a feather left by the predator marked the scene.
I've managed to take some more shots in the park with the Tamron lens which i will include in a short review in the near future. So far the lens performance is actually above my expectations in terms of image quality, response and feel. But more about that later!
