Kestrel in Flight

Today was the final half-day of our weekend birding tour. This female common kestrel hunted for over ten minutes as we walked down a long path by a wide sea-side marsh at Wareham Green, always staying comfortably in front of us. Then other birders came toward us beyond him--he decided to evade them by turning back and flying quite close past us. I took 15 continuous shots* over perhaps two seconds as he passed, and this was the best one.   Other spots today were Wells-Next-The-Sea, and Thornham Harbor, where I captured a whimbrel on our first day.

*For six weeks I've been using a new lens+camera combination, which I'd observed a member of our North Italian tour group using:  Canon's new 100-400 II lens and the relatively new 7D Mark II.  The two work wonderfully together, especially for flying birds. The 7D II's  20 megapixels seem very sharp,  permitting extensive crops (as here).