Little Hawk

I mentioned that I shot two birds today on Thanksgiving, so here is the other. Yep, it's the same American Kestrel (or it's mate) that I shot a couple of months ago. Evidently, they love the field behind my parent's house. Unfortunately, they are also very skittish. I couldn't get within a few hundred yards of this guy. I actually hopped a fence this time, trying to get closer, fighting my way through weeds that were quite literally up to my neck. But the closer I got, the more he fidgeted, until he finally flew off and didn't return. A couple of times he flew off, circled around, then came back to rest on a different branch of the same tree. During on of those orbits, I got the shot below of the little guy on the wing. My camera has a real hard time focusing on such a small object that's so far away and in motion. I even had a monopod to try and steady the shot, but it's still quite fuzzy. You can also see the grain in the picture from the high ISO I used. But I saw the kestrel again, and that's the important part!