bluezzzzz Loc: Stamping Ground, KY

We have a 4-lane bypass road around the city here, and I was driving toward our local library to review the days' shoot on a big screen iMac, when this wonderful kestrel encounter happened.

Saw her in a tree above the right road shoulder and I pulled over. She flew from the tree to a hover position high over the grassed median strip, and maintained that hover for about 25 seconds, with me shooting out the driver side window all the while. She then dove down to something on the ground, found that uninteresting and flew back up again a bit further along the road. I followed on the shoulder to a spot alongside and again took many shots. This hover lasted an amazing 57 seconds.

And then the really wonderful part happened. She dropped down to nearly my eye level and hovered above the opposite lane shoulder for about 6 seconds before flying away.

I've got my Canon 5D set up to have two buttons for BBAF, one of them using all the focus points, and the camera decides which one to use. I tried this and luckily the camera locked on the kestrel and nearly all of this burst was in focus. The black tree trunk in the background is in the same place in these shots, showing the steadiness of the kestrel's hover.

Cropped in Photoshop, and used Topaz AI Sharpen (Stabilize option.)

KestrelHover01Mar2020_173web by Marshall Smith, on Flickr

Marshall

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

It's a very fine image.

J-SPEIGHT Loc: Akron, Ohio

Nice capture Marshall

Rab-Eye Loc: Indiana

Outstanding!

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

Beautiful It feels like we're in its personal space with it Just excellent