Merlins are winter visitors in the Salt Lake Valley so I have just a few more weeks to attempt photographing them. Merlins are used to be called "pigeon hawks" because their shape and flight patterns are similar to pigeons.
For today's Friday Photos I am mixing it up a bit and posting images of Pronghorns, a Black-crowned Night Heron, a Long-tailed Weasel and an American Kestrel. Please enjoy!
American Kestrels hold a special interest for me, they are North America's smallest falcon but what they lack in size they make up for in attitude. These falcons can be fiesty.
I had a marvelous photographic experience with Coyote with falcon leftovers along the shoreline of the Great Salt Lake last week.
Where is the light when you want it? Yesterday it was hiding behind the clouds and lake fog when I spotted this Peregrine Falcon at a close distance, on prey and sticky.
Last week while out photographing I spotted a Prairie Falcon in the midst of a tussle with two Common Ravens in mid air. At times it seemed that the falcon was chasing the ravens and then the tables would turn and it appeared that the ravens were diving at the falcon.
Many of my regular readers probably know that I have been having a great time the past month photographing Rough-legged Hawks and Prairie Falcons so I selected an image of a Prairie Falcon to post for my Friday Photos today.
Wow, two nemesis birds photographed in a week, this Prairie Falcon was amazing. I'll be grinning (and dancing) about this for quite awhile!
The American Kestrel is our smallest falcon in North America but what they lack in size I feel they make up for in attitude.
Male American Kestrel in flight with a vole chased off by an appraoching vehicle
Taking the time to review my "bad images" strengthens me as a photographer.
What I appreciate a great deal about my avian photography is working with the light, not fighting it in the camera or in post processing, so I am presenting these images below as what they are, photos taken in low light.