![\"american](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/american-kestrel-5478-ron-dudley.jpg\")
1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nI photographed this male American Kestrel soon after dawn\u00a0yesterday morning at Farmington Bay WMA. It was\u00a0quite cold (11 F.) so the bird was “sticky” as it warmed in the sun and allowed me a\u00a0fairly close approach, especially for a kestrel.\u00a0For most of the time I spent with him (about 9 minutes)\u00a0he was facing me with his tail hidden behind the perch so I was set up for take-off (thus the fast\u00a0shutter speed).<\/p>\n
There are many things I like about this image\u00a0and one that I most definitely do not.<\/p>\n
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- Most of the time the kestrel was side-lit but just before he took off (away from me of course)\u00a0he turned on the perch at just the right angle\u00a0to give me nice, soft light on his entire body<\/li>\n
- I love the stretching pose with wings up, tail spread and\u00a0one foot slightly lifted. There’s even a good catch light in the eye<\/li>\n
- The background is clean and I like\u00a0its blue-gray color which matches pretty well some of the colors of the bird<\/li>\n
- I appreciate the frost on the shaded side of the perch as an indicator of the conditions when I took the shot<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
But I sure don’t like that perch. If it were just the post I’d be fine with it but for my tastes the sign ruins it. Many of the signs on the refuge are just like this one with the top of the sign placed within an inch or so of the top of the post. There are few trees at Farmington so raptors habitually use the many sign posts as perches and I’ve often wished that they were all placed several inches lower on their posts so they wouldn’t be visible or could be aesthetically cropped out of our images. One day I might have to have a conversation with the refuge manager about that but I doubt that such an issue would be very high on his list of priorities…<\/p>\n
From past experience I know that perches like this don’t bother\u00a0some of my readers as much as they do me.<\/p>\n
But like Popeye “I yam what I yam” and I can’t change that.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Most often on this blog I share my photographic successes but occasionally I can’t resist ranting over one of my near-misses.<\/p>\n