Starting out from Brooklyn, an amateur naturalist explores our world.
As John Burroughs said, “The place to observe nature is where you are.”
Deja vu all over again? Recently, on this very antenna, a Merlin was eating. But this is no Merlin:
The queen of all she surveys. There have only been two day this year that I haven’t seen this female American Kestrel on her patch in my neighborhood. (Well, I presume she’s the same bird.)
She’s usually seen on this antenna tower, which is across the street from the TV-dinner antenna.
Here she is strafing a Cooper’s Hawk, policing the territory.
In kestrels I have observed the sexual dimorphism resulted in different choices of prey species. The smaller male took sparrows, finches and dragonflies. The larger female took doves and catbirds. In the nest cavity I found pigeon bones, but could not determine if these were immature birds or the prey of a very capable female falcon. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see her take a Columbid back to the nest. She was awesome!
Backyard and Beyond 
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