Kestrel alighting with prey

An immature kestrel that has been kicking around close to home for most of the winter. An introduced perch nailed onto the side of a barn. I erected a pylon hide about 15 feet high to get level with the bird. Pre-focused on the branch and then watched through the window of the hide for him to approach.

Canon 1D MkIII with 500mm lens.

That is an astonishing piece of work. Erecting the pylon hide alone must have taken an age, I am glad your dedication paid off so spectacularly.

David

An excellent capture, well worth all your efforts. The lighting doesn’t look quite right tome tho’, no shadows, if you don’t have shadows then you are constraining both the perspective and depth of an image. Still an excellent shot.

Dave. A pylon hide 6 metres high can be put up in less than an hour. If tho’ your on a nest of say a woodpecker, then you do it in three or four stages.

Lovely image mark and you have been rewarded for all your efforts here only wish my last post(long-tailed tit) was as good
All The Best

Craig Jones
staffordshire

Fantastic shot Mark! Well worth all the effort of watching his behaviour over the months.

Stunning shot





Regards


Ian

Excellent shot Mark, well worth the time and effort put into it. Hope you are rightly proud of it.

Arron

This is indeed a fantastic shot, perhaps the lighting does look a little "studio" but its not really an issue for me.

Very nice indeed... would have liked the tail clear of the perch but I'm sure you have those too, light actually looks nice and I can see shadows....

Hope you don't mind me asking?

How long before he started using your introduced perch & how long in the hide to get the image you wanted?

Hi Mark

A beautiful shot!
Well caught,great lighting,snow on the ground?

Cheers

Craig
www.craigchurchill.co.uk

Mark

A cracking shot a reward for the effort.

Barry

I agree about the lighting and the studio look to the image to a degree. It was shot in very low winter light around the solstice and so the shadow of the bird not falling onto anything and of course it's against the sky. There was no snow on the ground but a lot of frost so this may also have bounced light back onto the bird.

Cheers,

Mark

Definitely worth your efforts Mark. Very nice indeed!

Fran

Yeah not bad and at least now you've learnt the correct way to erect a pylon hide - in an hour no less!


Pete

Cracking capture from solid technique - and even if someone can't see shadows, I can

Take no notice of that nasty Mr.Cairns - and OMD sends his best

A superb image.

Very nice. Love the shape of wing and branch.

Cheers

Terry

That something special !.

Bob.

Just back from your neck of the woods Mark and catching up on here - cracking work: nice to have some project time too!



Mark

Amazing shot, certainly worth the effort

Ouch, a talon through the head.Thats got to hurt.

A very nice moment caught superbly

Very nice behaviour shot. The branch looks a bit 'out of place' perhaps, but a minor nit.

Greg

Nice shot

Ian

Just brilliant.

Hope your pylon hide wasn't literally a hide up a pylon