This young Prairie Falcon had apparently been hunting ducks near the edge of the Great Salt Lake and got some of its belly feathers wet so it landed on a rock near the lake for some rest and preening. It posed for me for over 12 minutes which I appreciated but the light was low and variable due to the ever-changing thickness of the clouds.
1/800, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc
At first the falcon was fairly wary of me because I was quite close.
1/800, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc
But after a few minutes it settled into its preening again.
1/2000, f/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f/4
But this was a juvenile bird and not quite so suave and sure of its movements as an adult would be and suddenly it slipped on its perch and would have fallen backwards if it hadn’t caught itself with its wings and climbed back up on the rock.
Even though I didn’t get much light in the eye I still got lucky on this shot. I’d been shooting this bird with my tc attached and at a relatively slow shutter speed and the falcon pretty much filled the frame. Just before I took this image I removed my tc and ratcheted up my ISO to get more shutter speed for a possible take-off shot. If I hadn’t done that the wings would likely have been soft from motion blur and I’d have cut off parts of the bird with the tc attached. Occasionally things do work out…
1/2000, f/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f/4
For the next few minutes the falcon almost seemed embarrassed by what had happened and kept giving me looks like “you didn’t see that, did you”?
I’m fascinated by all falcons but Prairie Falcons in particular are such neat birds that I’m always hoping for more opportunities with them. This was one of the few I’ve had.
Ron
Ron:
Would you be willing to donate one or two of your fabulous Prairie Falcon pics to my free online Birds of Vancouver Island.? You must be willing to have them published without payment should the project be published. At this point this scenario is unlikely to occur but I keep working on it.
Sorry, Keith. With very few exceptions I prefer to keep my images on my own sites.
Fantastic shots and the color is amazing!
Hey Ron, Maybe a redundant statement from one of your earlier in the year Prairie Falcon pics, but to me, these are the coolest cats in the jungle. I’m with you on age for reasons stated, and also because of the lack of any pale cross barring on the wing coverts and any appreciable color differences in the flight feathers due to sequential molt (3rd pic, although sometimes hard to tell from the underside). Plus, adults are too worldly to lose it in front of a camera! Beautiful images.
This is a first year bird?
Do you think there are a few pairs breeding on the island
Rohn, I believe it to be a juvenile largely because of the blue-gray cere and eye ring, but I’m certainly no expert on the subject. It’s my suspicion that are are a few pairs breeding on the island but I don’t know for sure. If so, I suspect they’re in remote areas.
Great shots. Great detail. I can’t add anything to Bryce’s comment.
Thanks Bob.
Incredible shots! I can’t believe the definition in the feathers on the first photograph. I love seeing this bird in such detail. As always, great work Ron. For selfish reasons, please keep it up. HAHA.
Thank you Bryce. That detail comes from the fact that I was able to get so close to this bird, which is fairly unusual in my limited experience with the species.