Image of New Zealand falcon

Description:

The nesting pair of karearea at Zealandia spent a lot of time hanging around the nest, quietly minding their own business. But if a lunch invitation appeared they were happy to take the time to drop in. This one had been quietly preening when it noticed something below, unfortunately I couldn't see all the way down (and didn't accelerate the camera down fast enough anyway). Max shutter speed is 5 frames per second so 0.2 secs between frames ... so you can estimate speed ... if only you knew the height (perhaps extrapolate from length of bird). But then its just gravity, I'm not sure what the terminal velocity is of a ball of feathers. (thanks to Steve Attwood for publicising their location that year :-)