I am a Schedule 1 licence holder for the territory of this bird.

It would be hard for me to convey in to words how utterly rewarding and exhilarating this  photograph is for me.  I am very obsessive when it comes to bird photography and I like to make a plan and see it through to get the photo that I have seen in my mind's eye, sometimes for months in advance.  This photo was taken from a hide that I built last year overlooking an old oak tree that I  know the Peregrines like to visit from time to time. By no means is this a daily occurrence but I reasoned that if I put enough time in then eventually I would get lucky.  I have photographed the Tercel from this hide last year and also newly fledged juveniles but I hadn't been lucky enough to photograph the falcon posing nicely…. until today that is. But it has been a very patient  9 hours this last two days!  When the opportunity presented itself I had one chance and one chance only.  I  had been in the hide for a couple of hours and had seen the falcon briefly flying around just now and again and beneath me. I was sat very quietly with my head resting comfortably against the cam netting, I was almost "nodding off" when without any warning or noise, I saw her appear. The camera was already focused right on the branch and almost perfectly in the right place. I immediately pressed the shutter, the bird heard the shutter noise and in the time it's taken for you to read this sentence, she had come and gone.  The body and talons are in focus but a slight move of the head just as the shutter was fired makes that part of the photograph slightly soft.  If I had been able to take two or three shots I may have had one or two to choose from but never the less it was brilliant to see the falcon so close and to get the photograph.  I was really relieved when I saw it because with my 500 lens I managed to get the entire bird in the frame.  I guess thats wht you call a frame filling shot!