![\"peregrine-falcon-4108\"](\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/peregrine-falcon-4108.jpg\" "\\"peregrine-falcon-4108\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a01\/250, f\/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f\/4, 1.4 tc<\/em><\/p>\n As I first approached this falcon it was depluming\u00a0the duck.\u00a0 At times feathers were flying everywhere but at these shutter speeds and apertures\u00a0many of those shots ended up in the delete bin.\u00a0 At this point I was still using the 1.4 teleconverter but the bird soon let me approach close enough that I was able to ditch the tc and get slightly more shutter speed.<\/p>\n Take visual note of the size of the crop in this image when the\u00a0falcon has just begun to feed\u00a0so you can compare it to the size of the crop in some of the later photos.\u00a0 Here it is mostly empty.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/400, f\/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f\/4\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n Occasionally another potentially threatening bird would come along (ravens, harriers etc) and the falcon would pause and look up warily.\u00a0 In some of those shots I was able to get some light in the eye.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/320, f\/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f\/4 <\/em><\/p>\n The falcon seemed not to be disturbed by my presence (shooting from inside my pickup) but when another\u00a0vehicle or a predatory bird would come along it became nervous.\u00a0 Several\u00a0times, as in the photo above, it dragged\u00a0the duck\u00a0to a slightly more protected spot – in this case, behind this slight hill and rock.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a01\/400, f\/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f\/4<\/em><\/p>\n In this photo the falcon has begun to remove the intestines\u00a0before consuming the rest of the duck.\u00a0 The peregrine had pulled and stretched the small intestine trying to remove it and in the process the intestine snapped, leaving a couple of coils of it looped over its beak.<\/p>\n I’ve long been interested in the tendency of many raptors to reject the intestines of their prey which on some levels seems counterproductive to survival.\u00a0 I won’t go into that discussion again now\u00a0but if you’re interested I’ve broached the subject in this American Kestrel post<\/a>.\u00a0 The falcon was very intent and deliberate in trying to make sure that all of the intestines had been removed, as you’re about to see.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a01\/500, f\/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f\/4<\/em><\/p>\n It would grab a gob,\u00a0pull hard…\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a01\/500, f\/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f\/4<\/em><\/p>\n and discard.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a01\/500, f\/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f\/4<\/em><\/p>\n Grab another gob, pull…\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a01\/500, f\/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f\/4<\/em><\/p>\n and discard again.\u00a0<\/p>\n It did this many times.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a01\/400, f\/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f\/4<\/em><\/p>\n By this time the falcon has consumed a large portion of the duck.\u00a0 I include this photo mainly so you can see the bulging crop.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a01\/500, f\/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f\/4<\/em><\/p>\n Here the crop is also noticeably swollen and the species of the prey can be easily determined by the spatulate bill.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a01\/320, f\/5.6, ISO 640, 500 f\/4<\/em><\/p>\n By this time the falcon was engorged and it’s feeding frenzy had definitely slowed.\u00a0 You can see that the duck has been disemboweled by the empty body cavity with the\u00a0small intestine trailing back toward the direction from which the shoveler had been dragged.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n