Well caught, James. Good hunched feding pose - gore and feather on the beak complete the mood. I might crop in tighter on the Peregrine, patch out the debris in front of the bird and burn the edges in slightly.
Nice to have such an opportunity present itself. Very often raptors will be more tolerant when on a fresh kill. I'm curious to know if you have some images of this scene where the prey is unmistakably a Flicker (wouldn't have known if you didn't mention it)? That would be very cool. If you are comfortable with it I would definitely get rid of the stuff if front of the subject, and maybe lighten (but not eliminate)the dark spot in the BG close to the face.
nice shot,I hope you dont mind,but it looks more like a saker falcon to me,I have watched peregrines for many years,I know juveniles are brown and are bluish on cere and round eye,but I have never seen a peregrine with head markings like this one.If it is a juvenile perigrine,then I am glad I have seen this one with these markings thankyou.
Last edited by christopher galeski; 12-16-2008 at 12:26 PM.