FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] New Yard bird--kestrel

[Dthomp2669@xxxxxxx]

Greetings from a few blocks east of the old Cleece's Ferry landing in the 
Charlotte Park area of West Nashville.

While cleaning up from lunch at 2:10 PM, I saw something "different" fly past 
outside the kitchen window, and I almost broke my neck rushing to the deck 
doors.  WOW!  About 70 feet away, a gorgeous adult male kestrel had perched 
atop 
a utility pole in a neighbor's yard where he was keeping an eye on MY deck 
and feeding area.  After I got my camera and took a couple of photos, the 
kestrel flew from the pole to a utility wire a little closer to my deck where 
he 
continued his vigil.  After I took another picture, one of my poodles ran 
outside 
to bark at a squirrel.  The kestrel flew about a block away and lit on 
another utility pole still in fine view of the deck for him and of him for me.  
I 
finished a couple of chores then found that he was back on the pole where I 
first saw him.  I found the remnants of a female cardinal on my deck when I 
came 
home from the post office yesterday.  I blamed the Cooper's hawk family which 
hangs around a lot, but it may just be that Mr. Kestrel has been responsible 
for some of the sad junco and cardinal losses I've had lately (can't be too sad 
about all those mice which I think my owls are getting).  This is the first 
time I have had a kestrel within sight of my house since I moved here in 1991 
from a house about a mile away.  There, I once had a kestrel and a common 
grackle in a death defying battle in the front yard which I watched for a good 
ten 
minutes before I thought of my camera.  I dashed to get it, got back in about a 
minute, and they were both gone.  I think they were just about at an impasse 
although it had appeared that the kestrel was winning with a few thrusts of 
its beak at the grackle's throat while pinning it to the ground with a claw.

Actually, I had been wondering if a kestrel would find me as Tarcila Fox and 
I saw one flying above I-40 where it passes over Annex Avenue right in front 
of the OLD Walmart Shopping Center in the Charlotte Park area of West Nashville 
on our recent Christmas Count day.  They used to nest up in the high lights 
at Riverbend Maximum Security Prison which is about two miles from me 
flight-wise, but a little over six when one drives over to its location in 
Cockrill 
Bend.  I enjoyed a nest full every year that I was librarian there from 1989 to 
1997.  

Cheers & prayers,

Dee Thompson
Nashville, TN
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