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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/american-kestrel-6042-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-kestrel-6042-ron-dudley.\\"")
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1\/1000, f\/10, ISO 400, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n This male kestrel at Farmington Bay WMA in winter treated the mouse’s tail as dessert. There’s relatively little nutrition in the long, skinny appendage consisting mostly of skin, hair and bones but when it comes to survival, especially in winter, every little bit counts.<\/p>\n There’s too little meat on the bony tail to make picking it off energy efficient so if it’s to be eaten it must be swallowed whole which is far easier said than done. This bird really struggled to get the tail all the way down the hatch<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1000, f\/10, ISO 400, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n After working on the swallowing process for quite a while he got it far enough down so that only the very tip of the tail protruded out of his mouth but then he retched it all the way back up and had to start all over again. The second time was a charm and eventually he succeeded in getting it down and keeping it down.<\/p>\n It was a tough winter so who knows, maybe that little extra bit of nutrition made the difference in his survival.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When you’re a small falcon trying to survive in the wild you can’t be too picky about what you’re willing to eat.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/american-kestrel-6069-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-kestrel-6069-ron-dudley\\"")
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