Female Kestrel with Prey

[Loi Nguyen]

Another image of the cooperative Kestrel at David Salem's location. I watched her catching two of these white voles (I think) in the course of 1 hour and devoured them.

5D3
500f4 II + 2X III
1/2500
f8
ISO-1600
Bean bag from car window

Happy holidays to all. It's been another wonderful year with BPN and I thank all of you who gave me good constructive feedback on my images.

Loi

[David Salem]

Hi Loi,
I like the look back pose and the feather details and exposure look great too. She sure looks good in this frame.
This was obviously taken on a day that I wasn't with you as I have never seen her with a prey item like this. This is not a white vole, this is a captive raised white mouse.
Not sure how she got this in her feet but I feel that images of raptors with unnatural prey items in their feet are of little use. It is not natural and in "nature photography" it should be the predator with it's natural quarry. I know you go to Africa often so it's kind of like getting a shot of a beautiful Leopard in a low tree with a small black and white cow. Cool that he is eating the cow in front of you but not the natural Impala or Gazelle that it would normally take.
It is much harder to get a shot of one with a natural prey item but much more rewarding IMO. It also looks much better on the screen or on the canvas over your fireplace.
This is only my opinion, but I think many others here may have the same mindset.

Look forward to shooting together soon.

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Loi,
I like the look back pose and the feather details and exposure look great too. She sure looks good in this frame.
This was obviously taken on a day that I wasn't with you as I have never seen her with a prey item like this. This is not a white vole, this is a captive raised white mouse.
Not sure how she got this in her feet but I feel that images of raptors with unnatural prey items in their feet are of little use. It is not natural and in "nature photography" it should be the predator with it's natural quarry. I know you go to Africa often so it's kind of like getting a shot of a beautiful Leopard in a low tree with a small black and white cow. Cool that he is eating the cow in front of you but not the natural Impala or Gazelle that it would normally take.
It is much harder to get a shot of one with a natural prey item but much more rewarding IMO. It also looks much better on the screen or on the canvas over your fireplace.
This is only my opinion, but I think many others here may have the same mindset.

Look forward to shooting together soon.

Hi David, thank you for pointing it out that the prey item is not a white vole as I thought. I wasn't sure of it myself. I was the only one there, no one was baiting her, that I knew for sure. She flew off somewhere and came back with the mouse, ate it, then flew off again. I thought that would be the end of the session, but then she came back with another one.

Loi

[David Salem]

Hi Loi,
I wasn't sure how she came up with a white mouse until a friend told me today that someone was baiting her with white mice and because she is in such good condition, she kept killing them and taking them off to "cache" them. This is what allot of falcons do when they catch something and they are still not in need of a meal yet, they hide it for a later time.
This is what happened when you pulled up, she went and got her cached mice and ate them in front of you. Pretty funny as you weren't aware of what was going on or what she had.
Just for the future, there are very few all white prey items out there, especially in an area that has no snow, they would be extinct in no time :)

Merry Christmas and see you soon.

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Loi,

I am personally not against baiting when done with consideration, but in this case the unnatural prey in the frame (it is obviousely a lab or feeder mouse) ruins this shot IMO. would have been a great shot w/o the mouse

[Loi Nguyen]

Hi Loi,

I am personally not against baiting when done with consideration, but in this case the unnatural prey in the frame (it is obviousely a lab or feeder mouse) ruins this shot IMO. would have been a great shot w/o the mouse

Hi Arash, got it. Perhaps it would be best if you could remove this post. I was the only one on the scene when she came up with this prey and I had to admit that it looks like a mouse, but I told myself it couldn't be because no one else was there baiting.

Merry Christmas just the same.

Loi

[Karl Egressy]

You could clone out the mouse. The bird looks so nice, it would be worth the extra time to make it clean and presentable IMO.

[Tiago Caravana]

I agree with Karl. The Kestrel is so good that it's a shame to loose this pic, you could try to clone out the mouse.

[Daniel Cadieux]

It's a nice image Loi, and although it is bummer this is a domestic store-bought mouse we did get to learn something really cool about these raptors' feeding and hunting behaviour. Excellent IQ, great perch, nice colours.