1\/3200, f\/7.1, ISO 320, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\nThe little falcon was really struggling to maintain his balance on the spindly perch because the south wind was bouncing him hither and yon. Before this shot was taken both of his feet were wrapped around a single twig which gave him very little stability in the wind so here he’s trying to reposition his left foot but he hasn’t yet decided where to put it. During the process of making that decision he had to use his wings for balance.<\/p>\n
In the photos after this one his left foot was wrapped around several twigs.<\/p>\n
I think kestrels typically have a confident, almost cocky air about them so I enjoy witnessing his moment of vulnerability. The image is very sharp so I also like seeing such fine detail in an action shot.<\/p>\n
As I type this at 4:40 AM I can hear the wind howling outside. I wonder how this guy is doing right now. I hope he’s hunkered down somewhere out of the cold wind.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Addendum:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/american-kestrel-1557-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-kestrel-1557-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
As an afterthought I decided to include this photo, taken 12 frames (just over a second) later in the burst. Notice that even though both feet are now wrapped around several twigs he’s still struggling with balance in the wind. Here he almost went ass over teakettle.<\/p>\n
Almost immediately after this shot was taken he gave up and flew off.<\/p>\n
Cold and wind are both relative. Here’s the National Weather Service Wind Chill Alert for Glacier County MT for last night through Thursday. Our family farm near Cut Bank is in Glacier County:<\/p>\n
“Wind chills between 30 below zero and 50 below zero<\/em>
\nat times. For the Wind Chill Advisory, very cold wind chills<\/em>
\nexpected later Tuesday through Thursday. “<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An agile and athletically confident falcon in a rare moment of physical awkwardness and indecision.<\/p>\n
Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[340,338,334],"tags":[28,49,131,328],"class_list":["post-80629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-kestrels","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge-favorite-locations","category-birds","tag-american-kestrel","tag-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","tag-falco-sparverius","tag-wind"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/american-kestrel-1545-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-kYt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/american-kestrel-1545-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-kestrel-1545-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n