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Thursday 17th 48-60F, clear sky becoming more cloudy. A pleasant walk, in low, bright sunshine to the lanes and on up the hill. The distant sea was more visible than on previous visits to this vantage point. A cool breeze was blowing from the north at times.
I was taking photographs of distant deer when a car came along the lane. The driver stopped until I lowered my camera. We grinned at each other and he drove on. Amazing empathy!
A male Kestrel was hovering about 200 yards away over the fields. Despite its small apparent size, I kept snapping away in the hope of a worthwhile image.
This one is heavily cropped from 5180 to 1000 pixels. 400mm [MFT] 1/640s, f/14, ISO500. It is not enough to be reasonably sharp but the bird has to be sympathetically posed. Headless, "flying chickens" don't usually make interesting pictures.
Kestrels are not always easy subjects. This one was flapping its wings rapidly. It had its tail towards me for most of the time. It also kept switching to a new spot to study the ground below for prey. Even getting enough light into the undersides of a hovering bird can be difficult. The contrast with the brighter sky often produces little more than a dull silhouette. So I was very lucky with this one.
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