Nice job Dale. Filming birds in flight fascinates me, as does keeping them framed and in focus. Couldn't plan an attempt if I tried. Only footage I get is lucky footage. Nice work

This was fascinating to watch. I was amazed how you followed the birds going so far at such high speed and got their strikes on film. It was exciting to see the birds in action, and I also enjoyed seeing the cutaways, giving a sense of place. The music was perfect, and enhanced the feeling of the piece. If you have the time, put together some highlights from your 150 hours- you could post it to the UWOL forum here- I would love to see more. Thanks for sharing your adventures!


Ruth

Dale this one was exciting to watch. They look like they are jousting in the air. Is the outcome pretty predictable, do the falcons always get their target?

I agree more CU's would have been nice, but you would have to have some kind of crazy tracking system in place to get them stooping at a very high focal length.

Dale
You picked a interesting but challenging subject to video here. Smoothly following birds, especially falcons, in flight is a tough one. As mentiones it would've been nice to have some tighter shots but I know that's really hard to do. I enjoyed this one.

Gordon

This is a very interesting adventure and a very difficult and challenging subject. I liked your intro and music.

I can, however, echo some of the sentiments here. I feel that there are almost too many scenes of the falcon flying in the distance - could have been varied with more close-ups because it is such a stunning bird. Even an abbreviated version of your falconry story would have rounded off this movie nicely.

To me, Peregines are the most fascinating of all raptors. I find it absolutely amazing that their hearts start to pump backwards during their stoop and that their nostrils have specially designed bones in them to deflect the wind so they don’t suffocate themselves when diving at such high speeds.


Small wonder it’s difficult to film the dive. Your capturing a hit is even pretty amazing - very nice to watch and well done Dale.

Dale, what an ending! Watching the falcon pluck that bird. Sent chills up my spine. I can imagine how hard it was to track her in flight. The speed must be tremendous to do that type of impact kill. Now tell me, was that "Ghost Riders in the Night"? Bob

I'm late in catching up with these films partly because of being away most of February, and then because of trying to catch up with work, etc. So I've only just watched this. Great stuff!!

Was it a peregrine? I thought so at first, then later it looked like a longer-winged bird, and the close-up showed something that looked more like a lanner. I've filmed a lanner (with my old XM2) flying to falconer's lure - it certainly takes practice! And the bird wasn't that far away from me - no trying to find a dot in the sky! I'm hoping on my next trip to Scotland to film a falconer's peregrine working. Not hunting as in your film, but frightening gulls off a rubbish tip - a health issue as gulls can pick up diseases and spread them (to both gulls and humans).

I guess my criticisms of the film would be that the eagle didn't need to be there - my thoughts were was he another falconer's bird hunting, or was he being hunted - he wasn't really part of the story. And as a couple of others have said - more of the falconer with the birds.

I was doing stills of a falconer's birds in Scotland last week - it wasn't practical to use the video too, though I had hoped to. My favourite picture of the sessions, much to my surprise, was this one of the falconer explaining to his snowy owl what was required! And the bird performed - pity the dates were wrong for me to do UWOL 7 on this trip.

Annie,

The Eagle came in on the falcon to try and get a free meal.

the eagle did not have to be there for ceratin, but I was portraying the adventure as it happened and there wasn't enough time to get everything in. I could have voiced over i suppose. legitimate critique!

After reading everyones kind words, I may remake it, take out some of the flying footage, the eagle and move in some closeups and such.

The falcon is actualy a cross bred, the red in it comes from it Barbary falcon mother.

Wow! That was something. That falcon had to be hard to follow with your camera. I would say that you definitely had an adventure with this film. I enjoyed it a lot thanks for making it.

Dale,
What amazing footage you have there! I have never seen this sort of stuff before & thoroughly enjoyed it. I would have liked to see a bit more of the falconer himself, with maybe a V.O. of what was happening. I hope we can all see more of this sort of stuff from you.

Bryce