![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/american-kestrel-8291b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-kestrel-8291b-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nMale kestrels may be a little flashier but females more than hold their own in the beauty department.<\/p>\n
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1\/1000, f\/7.1, ISO 400, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Some years ago I took gobs of photos of this female kestrel on her favorite perch at Farmington Bay WMA but this is the only stretching pose I got where she had light in her eye and we could clearly see her face. In most of my shots of her stretching she was looking away from me.<\/p>\n Beyond the interesting pose from a lovely bird I really like the color palette of the photo and the vertical streaks on the perch help to tell her story. Birds are rightly notorious for two things, eating and pooping, and the streaks are evidence of both. The white streak is “whitewash”, mostly uric acid from bird droppings and the red streak is old blood, probably vole blood. She used this perch so often on a daily basis she’s likely responsible for both streaks.<\/p>\n And the blood perfectly matches her rusty colors. The paint departments at Lowes or Home Depot couldn’t have matched those colors more accurately.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Why I’m posting so many older photos lately:<\/em><\/p>\n Readers already know that my pickup was in the shop for two days last week for repairs (two recalls Ford pays for and two fixes I pay for). When I got it back after two days they’d only done one of the repairs (a long story I’m far from happy about.) So my only vehicle spent all day yesterday in the shop again. All four repairs have now been completed but as luck would have it those three “lost days” were about the only sunny mornings we’ve had in more than a week. <\/em><\/p>\n So it’s been nine days since I’ve been out shooting and I’m going more than a little stir crazy. After today the short term weather forecast improves significantly so I have realistic hopes of getting out in the field again soon.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Male kestrels may be a little flashier but females more than hold their own in the beauty department.<\/p>\n