Take-away

I was reluctant to post this image, mostly, but certainly not exclusively, because of the composition. However there is a very exciting story behind the shot that I felt compelled to share in light of the artistic shortcomings.
I was in my Jeep attempting to shoot a few Horned Larks that were foraging along the marsh at low tide, and experimenting with using my TC-20E II tele to bring the small birds closer. Of course this exceeded my camera's autofocus ability, so I was manually focusing on the Larks. I put the rig on the seat next to me and picked up my glasses, where from out of nowhere this Peregrine dashed across my view-right to left- and plucked a Buffelhead from a raft that was feeding in the narrow waters of the low tide. The falcon dragged the duck out from the water onto the nearside marsh, but was dissatisfied with that position and hoisted off to the far-side marsh across the river. I hastily reached for my camera, and realizing that I had the TC-20 on the rig, quickly, and somewhat frantically managed to focus and fire off a few frames as the falcon flew to the opposite bank.

I left the gull in the comp because cloning it out proved problematic, and I think it conveys a bit of the momentary pandemonium that resulted from the kill. Not the best of images, I would have no doubt loved to have had a slight left head-turn from the falcon-but as far as excitement goes one of the most thrilling I've had taking pictures of birds.

Thanks for your patience in reading this lengthy description and viewing the post.

Salisbury Salt Marsh-Salisbury Beach State Reservation, Massachusetts

D3s
500mm f/4
TC-20E II
1/1250s @ f/9
ISO 500
Manual Focus
HH resting on a noodle (thanks Mia) from my Jeep.