American Kestrel

[Michael Liskay]

Mostly, these guys are on a powerline or telephone wire and fly off as soon as you stop your vehicle. This little guy at Ridgefield NWR cooperated nicely and I was able to get several shots of him including flying toward me. This however was my favorite shot of the series.

Canon Mk IV, 400 DO IS _ 1.4x TC, ISO 1250, f8, 1/500s, -0.33ev. Bit of contrast and saturation and gamma tweaking in CS5.

[gail bisson]

Lovely pose. I think the IQ is excellent and the BG superb. The composition is different but nice. I wonder what it would look like with some taken off the LHS? Excellent DOF and perch, although not ideal, is still visually pleasing. Well done. I like it!!
Gail

[Roman Kurywczak]

Very nice colors and while perch isn't my favorite.....light looks VG and excellent angle too. I'd consider coming up from bottom with crop.....mostly to eliminate more of the perch but still and very nice image!

[dankearl]

Nice photo of the bird. I always see them at Ridgefield on the sign posts, I would take this perch anytime vs. what
I always see them on.

[Karl Egressy]

Nice pose and background. I'm not sure but the bird might have some blue cast.

[Michael Liskay]

Just realized that I mistakenly posted an earlier version. Just so happened that the latest version was cropped a bit tighter as suggested by the highly astute commentators out there. Thanks for the reminder. BTW, I do not see a bluish cast on either my monitor or the print hanging on my wall! :w3

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

These gus look so sweet till they are tearing up the smaller birds:w3 I like the fluffy body and the nice ha and expression

[Richard Unsworth]

Great shot, exquisite color, no cast to me

[christopher galeski]

very nice image,BG is superb,perch not the best,but you take what you get,nice pose,well done.

[Michael Liskay]

Appreciate all comments. Yeah, not the greatest perch but better than a power line, which is where I see these guys about 99% of the time!! ;-)