A Session To End

Hide de Calera - (Day 5 - PM) - 16.10.2025

Late afternoon we set off on the short drive to a private estate just outside El Caser the location of our accommodation, it’s still warm around twenty degrees with blue sky’s and full sun, remembering my last visit at the beginning of the week the sun didn’t help overexposing the background massively, so I guess it’s the same again this afternoon.

The location has two hides, I’m in the same one as previous, no matter their side by side so no different in the shots. There are two setup’s, a stone wall and the other a large diagonal log, the stone wall has dark background which falls into shadow late on, the log background with yellow grass gets extremely over exposed so you constantly have to change settings…hey ho !

It’s a long wait far longer than my last visit so much that at one point I thought it might be a “no show” eventually a single “bop” did make a late appearance.The Goshawk lands on the stone wall, it’s cautious looking in all directions I’m sure due the presence of another Gosh which will rob it’s meal given a chance.

The sun now very low has cast the entire area into shadow ramping up the ISO pushing the shutter speed low, I'm trying to limit the ISO resulting in shutter speeds down to 100 s/s, selective shooting is now the best option rather than what I usually...blasting away !.  

With the sun now almost gone as is the light I’m happy just to watch the bop rather than to shoot more, with a last tug the Goshawk manages to free the last remains of the carcass and in the best Westerns Movies disappears in the direction of the setting sun.

Trip over….maybe see you again next year.

Goshawk