For several months this winter this young Prairie Falcon would hang around the Antelope Island causeway in the early mornings hunting ducks (mostly Northern Shovelers). There’s very few ducks there now so the falcon spends most of its time on the island (rather than on the causeway) hunting Western Meadowlarks and Horned Larks. Since falcons are much more difficult to approach in the wide open expanses of the island I doubt I’ll get any more closeups of this bird anytime soon.
1/1600, f/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f/4
On this mostly cloudy morning the light was poor but shortly after I approached this bird there was just enough sun coming through a thin spot in the clouds to give me some light in the eyes. Some of the lower feathers of the falcon were wet and bedraggled which I assume was caused by hunting ducks in the shallows of the lake.
I’m always delighted whenever I can get close enough to one of the larger falcons that I can remove my teleconverter. To say that doesn’t happen very often is huge understatement.
Ron
Not as wet and miserable as my galah, but bedraggled nonetheless. Love it. Thanks.
Ron, you continue to give me views of birds I rarely even get with a spotting scope or binoculars. I can’t say enough about how much I appreciate this photo.