A few weeks back on Friday, 10 July 2022, I was just heading out of town to the Southwest and spotted the silhouette of a small raptor flying about - flapping furiously in the strong wind. I thought it was a Merlin, at first, and stopped and took a bunch of pictures. When I got home and LOOKED at the pictures, I realized IT WAS NO MERLIN!!!
American Kestrel in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook - Volume Two
Now that I have access to a better (better than what I had!) camera, I usually grab that first and click off a bunch of quick pics first - in case it flys away. The viewfinder isn't really great for making out details - but good enough to make sure the subject is in screen, then I click off a bunch in rapid succession - hoping at least one or two will be in focus. So, if a bird flies off before I even get the binoculars out, I often don't know FOR SURE what I was even looking at until I get home and look at the blown up pictures.
I'm not sure I've even seen an American Kestrel before. If I did, I probably mistook it for a Merlin - as I did on this day.
As soon as I saw the pictures, I knew what I'd been looking at, because I've been following the Cornell Lab Bird Cams on Instagram - and one of the bird box cams has been in a nest of American Kestrels
Oooh! There's a bird! Take a pic!
Oh! It landed on a wire... dammit, it's probably backlit and I won't be able to see any details... let's see if we can sneak past it to the other side where it will be better lit!
Hey! Look at that! It stayed (I'm guessing it put up with me because it was SO WINDY it seemed it was really struggling in flight!). Now if it would just stay there while I zoom in...
Boom!
Better birb pics!
Moved to the post.
I've seen more since then.
Including these ones I saw this past weekend
Cool bird and cool bird name.
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