Friday, May 30, 2008

Kestrel~mania in the City


Hope is not a dream but a way of making dreams become reality.
L.J.Suenens

When I hoped I would find an American Kestrel to photograph I never suspected that I would see one so soon or so close. It not only became a reality but an ongoing adventure. If you did not read the first post then you can update by going to the Best day of my Life and bringing yourself up to speed. After identifying the bird in the tree at work as a Kestrel and seeing it's mate show up to copulate......it then became an everyday obsession to bring my camera to work and get as many pictures as I could, and to find the 'nest'.
The week end came and I invited my friend to help me find the nest. So now it becomes a another jane and barbie adventure.

The Kestrels would fly to this building and land on the rail and sit and look around.
This is what it looked like.


I was so happy to be getting such nice shots of the bird even though
the building itself is so ugly.

Finally ... we got a shot of them together
I would like you to meet Mr. and Mrs. Kestrel


Tah Dah!! We called them Fred and Ethel.
Sunlight and shade presented two different colors to the
building. .. each equally as ugly as the other.


The hole directly behind them is where they would enter
and disappear. 'the nest'


He was always watching us.... from the top of the building
with his feathers ruffled by the wind.
On the rail .. always turning to see where we were with that incessant
clicking of the cameras.

We would see him or her gliding in and hovering..


Often times bringing home the 'bacon' in this case
the mouse.



She would come out and accept the offering.


Sometimes she would fly away with the catch in her mouth....


Or with it in her talons.


But as they got used to us he would eat in front of us and
then ....


When he had eaten some he would...
hand it off to her and
She would come out and puff up like an viper and accept the
offering and eat on the ledge also.

Sometimes she would mantle with her wings around the mouse.

it was exciting to see her tear the mouse apart to feed, which
we took as her acceptance of our presence there.


My hope of seeing a Kestrel had come to fruition and multiplied
by a thousand. I would have never thought I would see this in
the middle of town on top of an old building.



Fred is in 'the tree' watching which is what he does a lot.
I can get many pictures from my upstairs office window.

When Ethel is taking a break from the nest she will also sit perched in
the tippy top of the tree.

The leaves have started to fill in and is making
finding them a little more difficult. But they are still there.
We are hoping that they bring the 'babies' here so we can
get some shots of them too.
To God be the Glory.... Great things he hath done.

More to come....stay tuned to my blog.

12 comments:

Eve said...

FANTASTIC jalynn!!! Thanks so much for this wonderful documentation! Keep us posted!

Marsha said...

AMAZING! What a beautiful detailed story of a "day in their lives". How lucky to be able to capture them feeding and also to know where their nest is for hopefully future shots of the young ones. They are such beautiful birds and I think striking against the peeling paint. The korbels on the building tell us it was once a grand building but neglect has turned it into what you refer to as "ugly" but anything that houses nesting kestrels can't be all that bad :-) I will definitely be coming back for catching up on the city birds.

jalynn01 said...

Thanks eve for stopping by my blog. I will post as I get more pictures...

Marsha,
A lot of the buildings in our town has that kind of architecture... this one is now vacant and in need of repair. A perfect 'nest' for my beautiful Kestrels! I DO feel so lucky!

The Birdlady said...

Hey...missed you last week. Glad to see this very wonderful post. That first shot, especially, is fantastic!

Shelley said...

A beautiful series of photos - the kestrel has to be one of the most beautiful birds.

Sandpiper (Lin) said...

Oh wow!!! This is fantastic!!! I would love to see a kestrel again. It's been a few years. Your pictures are wonderful!

jalynn01 said...

birdlady thanks!

bird girl - more adventure to come for us I hope!

Thanks shelley and sandpiper! Stop back.

Nick S said...

Wonderful story of the Kestrels :-)

Anonymous said...

Just hope and pray that somebody don't get the idea to fix up the building and ruin their home before they decide to move out. That is how disasters in the wildlife community happen.

Your photographs are just beautiful and they show so many nice things happening. I wish I was this lucky.

jalynn01 said...

Thanks Nick & welcome!
Abe,
Unfortunately that building is being renovated so next year is probably out for the Kestrels. darn!

Kathie Brown said...

jalynn, some of those photos with the peeling paint of the old building are stunning. Hooray for the old building! It has its own beauty and it houses the Kestrels!

jalynn01 said...

Thanks for stopping by Kathie,
glad you liked that old building...even though I thought it was ugly..maybe the peeling paint gives it character. I know one thing...the Kestrels knew it was camoflauge for them.They are hard to spot up there.

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