Short-eared Owls in Aerial Disputes

With my treasured Nikon D5 off for a service and clean I decided to try out my wife's Nikon D7000 to see how it would cope on my 500mm F4 prime lens while using Short-eared owls as my test subject,

The cameras slower response to focusing and its lack of focusing options was a definite draw back as was the small viewfinder but the two thirds size sensor made it possible to work on more distant owls without the need to add tele-converters.

I also missed my D5's 11 frames a second exposure having to settle for five.  Single bird portraits as above were working quite well so I pushed on to work with some tricky aerial dispute compositions several of which are posted here.

Near the end of the shoot I was pleasantly surprised when what I thought was a dispute between a Crow and a Short-eared Owl turned out to be a passing Male Hen Harrier

I shall be glad when my Nikon D5 returns from its service but I thought that the D7000 performed well under the circumstances and it will keep me going out and about in the mean time !