American Kestrel, Green Island Wetlands, Mississippi Valley, Iowa
Here is another image from last weekend’s visit to the Green Island Wetlands. I was already pretty happy since I just had photographed the Rough-legged Hawk I showed in my last blog post. A few minutes later, on my way out on the muddy road, this American Kestrel just landed on a branch in front of me. With a slight turn of the car and the window down I was able to make a few clicks of this small falcon. I have written about in the blog before, the American Kestrel perches nine times out of ten on a utility wire between the poles. The bird gave me less than a minute and half of the time it looked away from me. Having the kestrel sitting actually on a tree branch is much harder to get and with the warm light of the setting sun, this is definitely a keeper.