The peregrine falcon had her work cut out. Her two youngsters had just started to fly, but they weren't yet skilled enough to catch their own prey, and so most of her time was spent hunting. Douglas had been photographing the family for more than a week and knew where the female's favourite perch was - a ledge near her nest on a steep cliff overlooking the Pacific in San Pedro, California. On this occasion, though, she chose to catch breath and scan for prey on the dead flower stem of a century plant. It was a precarious perch but provided a great photographic opportunity, with the peregrine framed by the curves of her strange perch and posed against a white backdrop of sky.
Canon EOS-1D Mark III + 500mm lens; 1/2000 sec at f5.6; ISO 640.
San Pedro, California, USA