![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/american-kestrel-2423-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-kestrel-2423-ron-dudley.\\"")
<\/p>\nA refugee from the storm.<\/p>\n
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1\/800, f\/6.3, ISO 400, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Even though I took this photo in 2011 I remember the bird and the circumstances as if it was yesterday. After a morning of photographing birds at Farmington Bay WMA I’d decided to head for home, in part because of a fast approaching storm. <\/span><\/p>\n Just as I was about to exit the refuge fierce winds similar to those of a microburst struck a thick grove of trees and we spotted this male American Kestrel dive close to the ground in the middle of them in an obvious attempt to escape the wind’s fury. <\/span>When I finally found an angle where I could clearly see him through all the trees and brush he was hunkered down and side lit on an old stump only a few inches off the ground.<\/p>\n It was tough shooting. The wind was howling and he was strongly side lit so with his back to me I could only rarely get light on his face or in his eye. This is one of the few shots where I managed to get at least some of both in the moving, dappled light.<\/p>\n Strong side light like this may or may not appeal to most viewers but in this situation I like it. Maybe that’s partly because it reminds me of the fierce but vulnerable little falcon who’d met more than his match in the gale force winds and found refuge in a spot that was extremely challenging photographically and I still managed to get some photos I like.<\/p>\n I’ve said it before, to me degree of difficulty matters.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Note: The bird’s colors in this photo might seem pretty intense so I want to make it clear that I made no color adjustments such as increasing saturation during processing. All I did was crop, sharpen, make a minor exposure adjustment and add my copyright watermark.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A refugee from the storm.\u00a0<\/p>\n