A Female American Kestrel in the grasses and goldenrod...

Along with the Common Buckeye butterflies and the sweet Savannah Sparrows in the high meadow at VOA Park a few weeks ago, an American Kestrel was about, hovering and hunting for prey in the tall, golden grasses. When I first caught sight of her, she was hovering high in the sky, a beautiful sight as she hung in the same place, her wings fluttering to keep her motionless. It was a very windy day, and I watched her hovering in the sky over and over. At one point, however, while I was very still and listening for the chip of a Savannah Sparrow, I saw her perched at a distance on a rusty post. Her coloring matched the tall goldenrod and teasel stalks surrounding her, and she blended in to almost nothing, but the bright white on her face and the two two black bars by her eyes gave her away as the dramatic contrast caught my eye among the golds and browns covering most of the autumn field.

Using one of her preferred methods of hunting, the American Kestrel sat patiently on the old fence post, vigilant to movement, and watched for grasshoppers or small rodents. The field was thick with grasshoppers, so when she suddenly would swoop down into the overgrowth, I assume she was nabbing a grasshopper.

Our smallest falcon, the American Kestrel is beautiful and colorful. It is always a special day for me when I spot one. Every now and then a kestrel tears through our side yard--those gorgeous kestrel colors a flash in the sky as he or she whips past our kitchen window.

It was a windy day, and she used the wind velocity to fuel another of her favorite hunting methods--the hover! Looking like a giant hummingbird, she would hang in the sky for minutes scanning the field below for food.

I saw her hovering six or seven times--each time in a different spot. She covered territory across all four corners of the high meadow. The American Kestrel doesn't hover like a hummingbird, instead, it flies into the wind at the same speed of the wind, the result being stabilized hovering. (Click here for an older post that describes how a hummingbird uses a figure-8 wing motion to hover.)