Our Wonderful World – American Kestrel

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After about another whole week of rainy weather, today I woke up to blue skies and the sun shining.  So, we found another place to look for some wildlife and especially birds.  We Googled some birding spots near us, hoping to find a new location, and sure enough a place we had not heard of was found:  Eagle Lake Refuge.  According to their website it is an especially good place for waterfowl and wading birds, and the best viewing season  is in the winter.  Unfortunately, by the time we got ready to go, it was about 1 pm when we got there and most of the ducks were out on the water and very much aware of our intrusion into their refuge and wanted nothing to do with us getting closer than 300 yards.  Not very good for photography.

Our plans are to go back again one day, before the the sunrise, and set up a blind closer to the water and try to get some good shots.  We saw mostly ducks today, and were never close enough to get a good look to see what kind they were.  I could see that they were not Mallards, they seem to have a dark head, bill, and body, with a single white stripe on the top of their wings.  If you have any thoughts of what they could be, please leave a comment and let me know.

But, all was most certainly not lost.  We were able to get some decent shots of a new species for us:  the American Kestrel.  A beautiful raptor of the Falcon family, yet even this guy stayed about 100 plus yards away.  But you can still make out his bold colors, spots, stripes, and that familiar falcon-like head with the dark stripe like a teardrop under his eyes.

We picked up 3 new countries in the last week that have viewed our blog:  Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Argentina.  Bringing the total number of countries that have viewed my photos and read my blog to 30!  So be sure to spread the word about rmgoldsmithphotography.com and press the “Like” button below.  Be sure to leave me a comment or two as I love to hear from you.  From my camera to yours, “Enjoy Our Wonderful World!”