Christmas Present

This American Kestrel has been stopping by our place two or three times a day for the last few weeks.  Earlier this week it seemed like every time I was out doing something, it would be perched in the front yard when I got home (and would leave before I could get close enough for a decent shot).  Yesterday and today were dry, so yesterday morning I put up my portable blind within decent range of the two perches he seems to like best.  Almost immediately after getting set up yesterday he came in and I got a number of shots, but I was a bit farther away than I liked and the bg was plain overcast sky, so I moved the blind closer to his favorite perch and tried again this afternoon.  He came in after about an hour and I got a nice series of shots (though with less varied poses than yesterday).

Ornithological note:  He seemed to be doing his tail flick in time with my camera shutter I had a fairly long series where the tail would be up in one frame and down in the next.  I'm guessing he was synchronizing with the sound of the shutter for some reason (I was not on high speed continuous).

Photographic note:  On balance, the images with the tail up were sharper-perhaps the downward flick made the head move a bit?

7DII, Sigma 150-600 C @ 600 mm, Tripod, ballhead and Wimberley Sidekick,  f/9, 1/200, iso 800, aperture priority, pattern metering, +2 EV.  Processed in LR5 & CS6.  Cropped from a horizontal original to a 12 MP 4x5.  Taken at 1:56 PM today under overcast skies.

Comments and criticisms are always appreciated.

Thanks,