![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/american-kestrel-4147b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-kestrel-4147b-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nThis may end up on\u00a0my short list of\u00a0favorite kestrel photos.<\/p>\n
Yesterday morning I spent eleven minutes with a male American Kestrel\u00a0with a vole in his talons at Farmington Bay WMA. He only ate part of\u00a0the vole\u00a0before eventually flying off and most likely caching the remains in a “secret” location. All in all I\u00a0took many photos of\u00a0him on three different perches (some with the vole, others without)\u00a0and he was calm and\u00a0accepting of my presence for the entire\u00a0time which is quite unusual for a kestrel. I\u00a0attribute\u00a0his calm demeanor to both\u00a0the bitter cold of very early morning and the fact that he had prey.<\/p>\n
However, due to a combination of factors related to a power outage in the middle of the winter night, my resulting lack of sleep and attempted recovery yesterday and the amount of time required to cull and process that many\u00a0photos I’ll only be posting a single image today but it’s one of my favorites from my time with the kestrel.<\/p>\n
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1\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/p>\n
He’d\u00a0been enthusiastically\u00a0feeding on the vole for some time when he suddenly stopped and just sat there and looked around for a while as if he was trying to make some kind of decision. Eventually he grasped the vole in his left foot, looked around some more, and than started to take off with it.<\/p>\n
But before he actually\u00a0lifted off he changed his mind and settled back down on his perch again. This shot was taken at the instant he aborted the takeoff which resulted in a pose that I adore.<\/p>\n
Following are the reasons I like this image as much as I do:<\/p>\n
I’ll be posting more photos of this handsome fellow sometime in the near future so stay tuned for “the rest of the story” but in the meantime I have more chores and more sleep to catch up on.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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This may end up on my short list of favorite kestrel photos.<\/p>\n