Eleonora's Falcon

Out walking the dog in the fields last week when I noticed a falcon taking down a passerine. It flew into a tree hedge before I could get my binoculars onto it. We then played hide and seek for a bit as it flew from tree to tree keeping to the rear edge - views of movement but nothing else. At the end of the tree line it exploded out of cover and flew fast into the kibbutz trees. I picked it up later soaring over the houses (our house!) and managed to get some distant shots. If I'd chosen to forego the walk I would have had superb views of this Eleonora's Falcon from my garden. Distant falcons can be difficult to id and this is the first EF I've had even half-way decent views of but the combination of features visible in the photos made me 95% sure of identity - a couple of emails later to Yoav Perlman and I was a very happy birder.

With many thanks to Yoav Perlman for confirming the id and Rod Standing for his comments.