American Kestrel - just for the record

(Note to self: I discovered yesterday that my camera was set incorrectly for 2015 instead of 2016. Date has been wrong since about 7 July 2016, so includes all the photos I took in Waterton Lakes National Park.)

The day before yesterday, 16 July 2016, I needed to go for a short drive. I had finally got my winter tires replaced with my all-season tires and I had to drive a few kilometers before getting the wheels retorqued. I have an upcoming long day drive with my daughter and didn't want to drive on lug-nuts that needed tightening. So, off I went SW of the city, covering my usual roads. It had been a little while since I last went there, partly because of my weekend trip to Waterton Lakes National Park and partly because of all the thunderstorms and rain we have been getting recently. Yesterday was the final day of the 10-day-long Calgary Stampede - wonder how all the wet, thundery days have affected attendance this year.

There was not a whole lot to be seen on my drive, though I was happy that one of my usual Wilson's Snipes was standing on a fence post, posing beautifully like it always does. I could also see a very, very distant Black Tern youngster being fed by an adult. A few Red-winged Blackbirds were still in the area. When I saw the bird in this photo way, way down the road, I suspected it was an American Kestrel. The light was so bad that all I got was a photo of a black silhouette. After brightening, this bird's true colours were revealed. Very poor quality image, but I don't often see a Kestrel and wanted to add it to my Birds of Alberta Album.

"North America’s littlest falcon, the American Kestrel packs a predator’s fierce intensity into its small body. It's one of the most colorful of all raptors: the male’s slate-blue head and wings contrast elegantly with his rusty-red back and tail; the female has the same warm reddish on her wings, back, and tail. Hunting for insects and other small prey in open territory, kestrels perch on wires or poles, or hover facing into the wind, flapping and adjusting their long tails to stay in place. Kestrels are declining in parts of their range; you can help them by putting up nest boxes." From AllAboutBirds.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Kestrel/id

I had checked what time the tire place closed on a Saturday, so I knew my time was limited. However, on the return drive, I spotted a Mountain Bluebird and then another and another .... I was thrilled to bits to finally see a fledgling (and its siblings). Usually, the families that I follow disappear overnight and I never get to see the young ones out of the nest box. I just made it to the tire place before it closed!