The one that got away

After taking some time off to let the weather get cooler it was time again this morning to give it another try. Luckily the cat woke me up at 5:30 so I was fresh and ready to head out early. Ok, I slept in a little more after that and got out by 7:15. I headed out toward the mink farm and was excited to see 3 kestrels all together on the wires, two males and one female. I saw one of them chasing starlings in a field nearby so figured they were hungry enough. Though I wonder if the one chasing starlings (female) was the mother; not sure if the young'uns would know to hunt birds yet. In fact, at one point I saw the two males hopping around in the road like lesser birds, eating bugs. tsk tsk

Compare this male's chest with the one on the background of the site. The lighter color of this one is a pretty good indicator that he's a passage (first year) bird. The darker breast on the other means he's a haggard (adult plumage).

I dropped the gerbil baited trap and turned back and settled in to watch. Maybe one minute after the drop one of the males dropped down and hovered about 3 feet above the trap, then dropped down onto it. And sat there. And the gerbil sat there. And the kestrel still sat there. (They're both supposed to run around in a frenzy. The gerbil to get away from the bird, the bird to grab the gerbil and more importantly get his feet tangled up.) Perhaps they conversed in a way only hunter and prey can communicate.

Kestrel: You will be my breakfast, little rodent.

Gerbil: Fat chance. Go eat a bug.

Kestrel: What are these weird fuzzy things sticking up all around me?

Gerbil: *chuckle* You'll see.

Kestrel: Wait, what? My feet are tangled! I'm outta here! *hop flap*

That's where my heart skipped a beat. He had sat so quietly on the trap, no running around and footing at the gerbil so when he hopped I didn't think much of it. I kept waiting for him to move across the trap toward the gerbil. Then he hop-flapped again. The third hop-flap finally got through to my brain that he was caught in the noose and I started the car and pulled into the road. I was too far away for him to get spooked by the car but coincidentally, right as I started car he flew off the trap, right back up to the wire. I'm guessing that since he didn't run across the trap he wasn't tangled enough and when he just hopped straight up and down, the noose opened up and let him loose. If he had panicked and kept the pressure on the line, he would have been caught. *sigh*

I backed into my waiting spot again and waited. (That's why I call it a "waiting" spot. I wait there.) Well, after a little more looking at the trap, he flew down to the road and started pecking at bugs again like a dang chicken.

I drove around and found a couple other kestrels but nothing with a good setup for dropping the trap and none were looking hungry by then. The sun was up and warming everything and the bugs were on the move. Maybe next weekend we'll try again.