American Kestrel

I went down to the Trinity River the other day and parked my car at a shady neighborhood park and walked over the levee to the river. The first bird I saw was this kestrel in a tree. He didn't stay (they seem very flighty to me) so of course I followed him.


Next he landed on a branch about a hundred feet away from me.
This was as close as he would let me get.



Not a great photo, but it does display one of their cool behaviors. When the are hunting they hover over the ground before they dive on their prey.



I was about 15 feet away for this picture. How did I get so close? I had seen him sit on this traffic cone before, so when he left it, I got real close and laid down in the grass and waited. And waited. It was at least 20 minutes before he came back with prey. I was able to snap about 8 pictures before the noise of the camera scared him off.









While I was laying in the grass waiting for the kestrel, I spotted this Cooper's Hawk.



Later on I saw him again and was able to sneak up pretty close. He flew off before I was able to get any clear pictures of him.