Cheryl Ridge

Birds of prey fascinate me. We often see them on road trips
soaring high in the sky, riding thermals, or sitting
on powerlines. Less often down at our level sitting on
fence posts or picking off road kill.

There are often times we wished we werent conspicuous
or that our car was silent. Wild bird photography is
challenging and frustrating. These creatures are wild
and free, with the blink of an eye they can fly off
never to be seen again. So I actually consider myself
extremely fortunate to have photographed so many wild
birds over the last few years.

This was probably the wildife highlight of my recent
weekend away – a young Brown Falcon had alighted
on a fence post. We stopped the car as we do but the
Falcon took off – as they tend to do. It alighted
on a fence post in the distance – rinse and repeat!
Let us try for third time lucky. With a quiet prayer/wish
asking the Falcon to stay a while I got out of the car
and crept around sticking close to the car. The Falcon
remained on the post with its eye on me, raised its
wings a bit as if it was about to take off but then
started preening.

I walked slowly towards the Falcon but averting
my gaze and got to within 15…or maybe even 10
feet of the bird! It remained on the post in
beautiful daylight with a backdrop of greenery,
blue sky and wattle. I was even able to move
a little and change angles without the bird
flinching. Hard to tell how many moments I got
with the bird but it was a magical experience
and I got numerous images before it flew off
and disappeared into the wide blue yonder.

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