I rarely photograph raptors on utility poles anymore but I’ll always make an exception for Prairie Falcons. Especially when they allow me to observe some of their behaviors up close. (7 photos)
Showing feathery and bloody evidence of the work talons are cut out to do. (2 photos)
A lighting effect I almost never get on a raptor. Or any other bird for that matter.
A Northern Shoveler is unusually large prey for a Prairie Falcon but this young female pulled off the kill in spectacular fashion.
Bird photographers never know what we’ll see in our photos that we didn’t notice in the field. My shots of this Prairie Falcon taken two days ago surprised me in more ways than one.
Dragging her next meal over all the bumpy obstacles was almost too much for the struggling falcon.
Light like this very rarely occurs in bird photography that doesn’t involve setups or some other kind of manipulation, especially when the subject is a wild Prairie Falcon.
This photo is on the short list of my favorite shots of all time, partly because of its high degree of difficulty but certainly not limited to that. But the version I’ve posted in the past needed some tweaking.
It was an incredible experience for me to actually learn the life history of a Prairie Falcon I’d photographed in the wilds of southwest Montana.,
