![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/american-kestrel-4853b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-kestrel-4853b-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n1\/1000, f\/7.1, ISO 640, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n This is an older photo\u00a0taken in December, 2010 at Farmington Bay WMA (I posted another shot of this bird\u00a0some time ago\u00a0but this one is new to my blog).<\/p>\n Winters are hard on birds at the refuge and this male’s\u00a0tail feathers\u00a0show some of the resulting wear and tear. Some of the barbs were separated from each other so he meticulously drew each feather through his bill to “re-zip” the hooks meant to hold them together. I wish I had a better look at his eye but in my view the pose makes up for that shortcoming and besides he likely had his nictating membrane closed anyway.<\/p>\n These colors are so vivid I want to be clear that I haven’t monkeyed with saturation or any other color adjustment during processing.<\/p>\n I miss this old snag perch! It was a favorite kestrel perch for years and I like its distinctive\u00a0shape and weathered condition\u00a0but sadly\u00a0it’s gone now and natural perches like this are few and far between at Farmington.\u00a0Recently my\u00a0friend\u00a0and raptor authority Jerry Liguori posted a lovely image on Facebook\u00a0of a Short-eared Owl perched on this same snag at sunset in January of 2004. If you have the interest and you’re a FB user you can see it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n As you’ll see the perch didn’t change much over the years until it (apparently) fell down.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I don’t often get a male kestrel to pose like this for me.<\/p>\n