![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/american-kestrel-3893-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-kestrel-3893-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nA beautiful male in a more colorful winter setting than I usually get.<\/p>\n
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1\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n In early January five years ago I found this male American Kestrel enjoying a morning meal of vole atop a frosty wooden post at Farmington Bay WMA. I got the impression that he wasn’t particularly hungry because, even though he seemed relaxed, he spent much more time doing nothing but calmly looking around than he did eating.<\/p>\n After I took several hundred photos that were very similar to this one he…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/7.1, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n eventually picked up the vole in his beak and tried to decide if he was going to take off with it. Eventually he did but it took him a while. He launched away from me so all I got was butt shots of him in flight.<\/p>\n Of the two photos I prefer the second one because in that one we can see most of his tail and in my experience it’s far more unusual to see a kestrel with a vole in its beak than it is to see the vole in the kestrel’s talons.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Note: Some readers may have noticed that I haven’t included my copyright watermark in these photos. I tried but Photoshop is acting up so it won’t let me. I hope to get it fixed later today. Photoshop can be a PITA.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A beautiful male in a more colorful winter setting than I usually get. (2 photos)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/american-kestrel-4103-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-kestrel-4103-ron-dudley\\"")
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