We are once again in bonus time for the month boys and girls or maybe that should be birdmen and birdettes.  Having met the quota, once again, early in the month I can focus bit more on getting through the backlog of shots.  This particular post is really more of an update for the North American Bird List Gallery than a post on its own.  If you recall, the list rules require a few things before an image can make it on the gallery:

• I have to visually see the bird
• A picture has to be taken sufficient enough to tell what it is from the picture alone
• Properly identify the bird
• Any cleanup required in the digital darkroom must be completed
• The image must appear on my blog (this is the bottleneck in the process)

So today’s bird post is focused on adding/updating the gallery shots of the Common Kestrel.  If you recall, this particular bird debuted back on December 13th (link here).

This specimen was actually taken while out on our Yellowstone trip back in June 2013.  The location was actually in the Grand Teton National Park which we visited on the trek back on the Denver leg.   Kudos to Linda for remembering where this particular location was – I could describe the little dam, the long white rock road to the parking area by the river and of course the large tree in the entrance this Kestrel was hanging out in.  Based on the map we were looking at the consensus was we were near Moose Junction, WY along the Snake River.  Admittedly, beyond this Kestrel hanging out in the tree at the entrance, there really was nothing worthy of taking a picture of.  I tracked a large bird flying around near the far banks, fought like crazy to get a shot of it in focus only to find out it was not a Hawk as first suspected – nope, just a Turkey Vulture and with the amount of those that hang out in my backyard, no reason to spend any more time on it.

As you can tell from the shots, this particular Kestrel wanted to keep tabs on me.  It would take a glance over at the Beast to make sure it hadn’t moved and then go back to scanning the fields for lunch… check the glass, scan the field, check the glass, scan the field to the point the exact timing of when it was going to look towards the camera was quite predictable.  Clearly this composition fits into my signature style of head across body (if you haven’t figured that out yet, you must not be looking at many of my pictures ha).  Based on the lack of slate grey across the wings and the dominant barring across the back we are likely looking at a female or possibly a juvi.  My money is on the former based on the size of this particular specimen.  Hard to tell from the shot itself, but this specimen was pretty large for a Kestrel compared to the smaller stature of the juvies.

Just a quick one today folks – hope you enjoyed!