My Recent Encounters With The Female Prairie Falcon

As regular readers of my blog know, I’ve had four close-up encounters with this female Prairie Falcon on the Antelope Island causeway over the last couple of months.  I couldn’t resist posting some images of her in different poses that I haven’t published here previously.  There is general agreement among folks who are much more knowledgeable about falcons than I am that it was the same bird in all four cases.

 

 1/640, f/4.5, ISO 640, 500 f/4,  natural light, not baited, set up or called in

Here she is on 10/7/12.  I’ll never forget that morning because she let me get closer than I had ever been to a wild Prairie Falcon (even had to remove my tc).  But there was a tradeoff (isn’t there always?) because the reason she felt so secure was that she was in deep shade, which isn’t the best situation for photography.  Still, I’m happy to have the images of her that morning.

 

 

 1/2000, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in

A little over a month later (11/11/12) she killed a Northern Shoveler in the water about 50 yards out and waited for it to drift to shore.  Here she has just claimed her prize and seemed to raise her wings in celebration.

 

 

 1/2500, f/6.3, ISO 640, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in

She attempted to enjoy her meal on the shore edge but waves kept coming in and sloshing the duck around so she decided to drag it further away from the water.  Doing so took a lot of effort, which reinforced in my mind the reason why she waited for the duck to wash in instead of attempting to carry it to shore.  I don’t believe she could have lifted it out of the water.

 

 

 1/3200, f/5.6, ISO 800, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in

Even though it’s a little graphic, I include this photo to demonstrate how much “de-feathering” the bird must do in the process of eating a duck like this.  The pile of feathers around the shoveler is pretty impressive and even more of them had been blown to the left and out of frame by the breeze.

 

 

 1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in

Then, a little over two weeks later (11/27/12), I spotted her on some of the more colorful rocks along the causeway.  She was actively hunting ducks and would perch for a while, then make a run on the ducks and then perch some more.  She wasn’t successful in killing one while I was there.

 

 

  1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light, not baited, set up or called in

Most of the time she wouldn’t even look at me because she was so intent on scanning the water in front of and behind her for ducks.  Usually when I’m this close to a raptor they keep a pretty close eye on me but that morning she thought I was pretty boring.

About 10 days later (12/7/12) this bird let me get so close that even without my tc attached and shooting vertically the images were just too tight (I’ve included none of those images here), but because of the angle of the road and vegetation I couldn’t get any further away and still see her clearly.  That was one of those times I wished I was shooting with a zoom lens.  I did have my 100-400 with me but she flew off just as I was switching over.  Another example of “operator error” getting in the way of some nice images…

I was on the island yesterday to point out the location of the female kestrel with jesses and anklets on her legs to a licensed trapper (I’ve posted an update on that situation in the comments section of my last post).  The trapper spotted a Prairie Falcon along the causeway on a duck kill.  That falcon was very likely this same bird.

Ron