![\"american](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/american-kestrel-5374-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAmerican Kestrels are known to be maddeningly elusive for photographers. Get within a hundred feet of them and they typically vamoose. And they like high wire perches which aren’t conducive to good photographs. So this morning I’m reminding myself that if you persevere you can occasionally get lucky with them and I’ll use this example from a year ago in Montana’s Centennial Valley. I got relatively close to two kestrels, a male and a female, both with prey, within\u00a0four minutes.<\/p>\n
Miracles\u00a0do happen.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n First I approached this male on a fence post\u00a0as it was eating what I believe to be a grasshopper. As you can see he was wary of me at first but he soon settled down and calmly finished off his meal. At that point I expected him to fly off but he actually spent some time cleaning his bill on the post before he did so. I like the look we get at the prey, the fanned tail, the feathers ruffled by the breeze and the background colors. And those big black eyes…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1600, f\/9, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Then, four minutes later, I found this female a little further down the road. She was feeding on a vole in her right foot but looked back occasionally to check me out. This image illustrates one of the prices we pay for shooting in harsh light – the photo was taken at 11:11 AM and there’s some glare on her back feathers that I’m not happy about but as you can see I still kept the image. After all, it’s a kestrel!<\/p>\n American Kestrels tend to be “stickier” when they have prey and I’m confident that’s at least part of the reason these two\u00a0let me approach them. I often go months without getting close to a kestrel so photographing two of them within four minutes was a stand-out event for me.<\/p>\n Good birds!<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I got relatively close to two kestrels, a male and a female, both with prey, within four minutes. Miracles do happen…<\/p>\n![\"american](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/american-kestrel-5410b-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n