1\/3200, f\/5.6, ISO 800, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\nThis is the same perch as in the previous image but the shooting angle is different and\u00a0I was able to get much closer to the falcon so the detail is significantly\u00a0better and there’s only water for background.\u00a0 The shade\/light transition hasn’t quite reached the feet of the bird.\u00a0 I haven’t had “buck fever” when shooting a bird for a long time but I had it here and made some mistakes in my settings.\u00a0 I didn’t need such high shutter speeds for a perched bird and probably should have been at ISO 500.\u00a0 I was so close I had to shoot vertically (should have taken the teleconverter off) and when it took off I missed some nice shots because I clipped the wings and other body parts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During winter the preferred prey of Prairie Falcons is Horned Larks and Western Meadowlarks.\u00a0 Antelope Island abounds in both species and also has the steep cliffs that these birds require so the island is ideal habitat for them.\u00a0 However there are relatively few larks along the causeway this time of year which is another reason that I think this bird may have learned the advantages of stealing prey from other raptors.\u00a0 Just my theory…<\/p>\n
Ron\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Every avian photographer has their “nemesis birds” – a species or two that the gods of photography have foiled any and every\u00a0attempt at getting quality images of.\u00a0 For me the Prairie Falcon has been at or near\u00a0the top of that list.\u00a0\u00a0 I particularly love to photograph raptors but\u00a0locating and then getting close to this falcon in good light has eluded me for five years now.\u00a0 But two\u00a0days ago I resolved that dilemma!\u00a0 \u00a01\/4000, f\/5.6, ISO 640, 1.4 tc We first spotted this bird coming towards us along the Antelope Island causeway just as the sun peeked over the Wasatch.\u00a0 It soon landed on this stump and in good light but I wasn’t quite as close to the bird as I’d like to have been.\u00a0 Soon it lifted off and hunted the causeway going west, causing quite a ruckus among the gulls, shorebirds and ducks as it approached them.\u00a0 It was fairly easy to track the falcon by watching for groups of panicked birds taking to the air.\u00a0 \u00a0 1\/1000, f\/5.6, ISO 800, 1.4 tc Next it landed on this interesting rock and I was able to get a little closer.\u00a0\u00a0The background is a little funky with the harsh color\u00a0transition between water and rocky shoreline\u00a0passing through the bird but\u00a0I liked the perch and the good look at the entire bird, including tail.\u00a0 I suspect that this falcon has learned the fine art of thievery.\u00a0 Earlier this week we observed a Prairie Falcon along the causeway chase off a Peregrine Falcon from its Ruddy Duck…<\/p>\n
Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,334,337,9,371],"tags":[31,539,538,132,227,541,254,537,540],"class_list":["post-3173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-antelope-island","category-birds","category-diurnal-raptors","category-favorite-locations","category-prairie-falcons","tag-antelope-island-2","tag-causeway","tag-falco-mexicanus","tag-falcon","tag-nemesis-bird","tag-peregrine-falcon","tag-prairie-falcon","tag-stealing-prey","tag-thievery"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-Pb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3173\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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