{"id":44982,"date":"2017-02-15T05:14:59","date_gmt":"2017-02-15T12:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=44982"},"modified":"2026-04-03T08:45:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:45:55","slug":"peregrine-falcon-stretching-sessions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/02\/15\/peregrine-falcon-stretching-sessions\/","title":{"rendered":"Peregrine Falcon Stretching Sessions"},"content":{"rendered":"

I spent forty-one minutes observing and photographing this Peregrine Falcon yesterday while it rested, preened and stretched right next to the Great Salt Lake<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"PeregrinePeregrine Falcon wing and tail stretch – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 250, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

I was in a vehicle pulled close to the side of the road using it as a mobile blind and the falcon appeared to be very relaxed during the entire forty-one minutes.<\/p>\n

\"PeregrinePeregrine Falcon stretching its wing and tail – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 250, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Most of the time while I photographed this falcon it was resting with one foot drawn up under its feathers while it looked around, it even closed its eyes a few times. There were three times that the falcon stretched its wings which gave me these nice poses to share.<\/p>\n

The background in these images is the frozen Great Salt Lake.<\/p>\n

\"PeregrinePeregrine Falcon wing stretch – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 250, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

The falcon gave me a few wing lifts to photograph too. I am glad it looked in my direction a couple of times while it stretched…<\/p>\n

\"PeregrinePeregrine Falcon stretching its wings – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 250, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Lifted its wings over its body and fanned out its tail. This is such a beautiful bird! Those feet look huge.<\/p>\n

\"PeregrinePeregrine Falcon settling its wings from stretching – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 250, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

When the Peregrine Falcon did take off from its perch it flew east over the frozen lake and mudflats after some ducks that had flown past and within less than a minute I watched as it captured one of the ducks while in flight and flew with it way out on the flats to eat its prey.<\/p>\n

\"PeregrinePeregrine Falcon out on the frozen flats eating its prey – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 250, +1.0 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a very large crop of the falcon out on the flats with its prey, with naked eyes it was barely visible from the road and most people wouldn’t have seen it.<\/p>\n

Watching and photographing the Peregrine Falcon yesterday was a nice way to relax, enjoy the sunshine and reconnect with nature.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Peregrine Falcon photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I spent forty-one minutes observing and photographing this Peregrine Falcon yesterday while it rested, preened and stretched right next to the Great Salt Lake. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":145935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[511,27,1022,1134,26],"tags":[4004,4285,4078,4279,5632,4005,4104,1135,153,5668,3964,4135,373],"class_list":["post-44982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-peregrine-falcons","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-falco-peregrinus","tag-falcon","tag-falcons","tag-falcons-of-utah","tag-great-salt-lake","tag-perched","tag-peregrine-falcon","tag-raptors","tag-rusty","tag-stretching","tag-wing-lift","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/peregrine-falcon-stretch-mia-mcpherson-7802.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-bHw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":32435,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/11\/12\/a-young-peregrine-falcon-and-the-great-salt-lake\/","url_meta":{"origin":44982,"position":0},"title":"Young Peregrine Falcon and the Great Salt Lake","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Great Salt Lake this time of the year is full of ducks and that means that there is ample food in the area for this young Peregrine Falcon.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature Peregrine Falcon rousing, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/peregrine-falcon-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-8749.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/peregrine-falcon-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-8749.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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McPherson","date":"November 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This time of the year I start looking for Peregrine Falcons to show up near the shoreline of the Great Salt Lake because of the high numbers of ducks that are usually there.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature Peregrine Falcon near the shore of the Great Salt Lake, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/peregrine-falcon-rocks-mia-mcpherson-8538.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/peregrine-falcon-rocks-mia-mcpherson-8538.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/peregrine-falcon-rocks-mia-mcpherson-8538.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/peregrine-falcon-rocks-mia-mcpherson-8538.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3915,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2011\/12\/28\/peregrine-falcon-with-prey-low-light\/","url_meta":{"origin":44982,"position":3},"title":"Immature Peregrine Falcon With Prey ~ Low Light","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Where is the light when you want it? Yesterday it was hiding behind the clouds and lake fog when I spotted this Peregrine Falcon at a close distance, on prey and sticky.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature Peregrine Falcon on top of prey, Antelope Island State Park causeway, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/peregrine-falcon-prey-mia-mcpherson-2735.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/peregrine-falcon-prey-mia-mcpherson-2735.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/peregrine-falcon-prey-mia-mcpherson-2735.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/peregrine-falcon-prey-mia-mcpherson-2735.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":32022,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/11\/08\/a-peregrine-falcon-on-a-tumbleweed-perch\/","url_meta":{"origin":44982,"position":4},"title":"Peregrine Falcon on a Tumbleweed Perch","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I was delighted to have a minute or two with this immature Peregrine Falcon on a tumbleweed perch in northern Utah. 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