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Thread: Preening Kestrel

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    Default Preening Kestrel

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    American Kestrel Male preening at the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary, Irvine, CA, taken with my (newly-acquired) excellent used copy of the Canon 500mm f/4 IS lens (plus the 1.4X extender).

    The pictured Kestrel was very cooperative, moving among several low perches quite close to me before settling on the truncated tree shown in the photo. He spent a few minutes preening before flying off, allowing me to capture a series of nice images.

    Canon 7D with the Canon 500mm f/4 IS lens and the Canon 1.4X Extender II.
    Manual; f/8 at 1/1600sec; ISO 400. Tripod/Wimberley II.

    Thanks for looking,

    John

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    This is outstanding! And how wonderful that the kestrel is on a natural perch and not the wires they so often frequent . Beautiful colors and great detail, and great capture of preening behavior. I am still in pursuit of a kestrel without wires.

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    Great behaviour image! I like the natural perch and fanned out tail feathers.

  4. #4
    Danny J Brown
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    John,

    You have experienced the true joy of a Canon 500/4 and shared that joy with us in a big way. Your image is about as good as it gets with a kestrel.....maybe on par with Jim Salywoda's but it's unfair to compare anybody to that boy! I'm like Nancy....still looking for a decent shot of this species. Great work.

    DB

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    Excellent. You had me searching your signature lines for a website to see more of the series and your work.

  6. #6
    Todd Frost
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    Superb image John. Love the preening pose. Exposure and sharpness look good. Well done.
    TFS
    Todd

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    Beautiful details - congrats!

    Mikko

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    Ákos Lumnitzer
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    An absolutely beautiful image indeed. I love everything about it. Congrats! :)

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    I believe this is one of the best Kestrel photos I have seen! Spot on!!!

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    What a killer image of a difficult bird to get on a clean, natural perch, and the first I've ever seen of a preening kestrel - double winner. Well done, John!

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    This is one **** of an image!! More for the action that you have captured.

    Great!!

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    LOVE the pose, the spread tail feathers, the way the bird is holding on to the tip of the perch!!

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    BPN Viewer Pieter de Waal's Avatar
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    Hi John , excellent image, has it all, animated pose, beautiful colours, well controlled light, good plumage detail and great perch.Love that curved tail feather, well done.

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    Thanks, everyone, for the positive feedback. It was a treat to have this little guy land so close to me - and then ignore me as he went about his normal behavior.

    I have a few more from this series which I will post at a later time.

    John

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    sweet light, great pose and perch adds well here.. nicely done..

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    Avian Moderator Randy Stout's Avatar
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    John:

    Superb pose, I didn't know they could do that one!
    Great utilization of your new lens.

    Can't wait until you get the 800 to see what you can generate!

    Serious congrats!

    Randy

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