American Kestrel female

Falco sparverius

Yesterday Ron Dudley and I went out photographing, the day started with a very heavy fog. Familiar roads looked alien and strange enveloped in the swirling mists. We came across the four year old eagle perched in its favorite pole covered in frost. We took images through the gray fog, then more as the sun rose and slowly burned its way through to light up the eagle. We sat with the eagle for exactly two hours before it lifted off and headed south. Cold finger tips, laps we had to cover with our coats to stop the shivering and sips of cold coffee from our travel mugs were all worth watching the eagle for those two hours.

Since I have posted a few Eagles recently though, I thought I'd give everyone a break and post some thing different than an eagle.

While we went down the road after the eagle left we spotted this female kestrel on an old twig with iced over water behind it. We only had a few seconds with her as another vehicle was making its way down the road towards us and the bird, we knew she would fly.

I see many more male kestrels posted here than the females and while I think the males are gorgeous, so are the females in their own right.

I like the soft color palette in this image, the frozen water behind the bird and the frost covered perch.

D200, lens resting on window of pickup, f7.1, 1/800, ISO 320, EV +0.7 step, 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, 52% of original image taken in vertical format, natural light. Not baited.

As always, I sincerely appreciate your comments and critiques, thanks for looking.