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.