[Birdtalk] Little Miss Innocent

[Kristin Purdy]

I admit I don't pay a lot of attention to the cute and innocent-looking American Kestrels that perch on mile marker posts and signs as I cross Antelope Island's Causeway. Today's trip was no different ... no different, that is, until the trip home. Driving east I passed a female American Kestrel perched on a sign. She was grasping something big against the vertical metal surface. I could tell that the object wasn't the usual petite and solid-looking vole, but that was about it. The prey item demanded another look. Two birder's U-ees brought me around and around again to face east toward the kestrel. 

She didn't like my watching. The kestrel dropped off the sign and flew east, staying low and landing on one of those tussocks that had been turned up by the recent construction. She didn't stay put for long and returned to her sign empty-taloned. She bobbed her tail upon landing--was that an attempt to look innocent? But she couldn't pull off the casual look. A smoking-gun downy gray feather was stuck on her bill, flipping around in the breeze. 

I couldn't let the clue pass without trying to resolve the mystery of what she stashed in the tussock. I passed Little Miss Innocent still perched on the sign while the poufy little feather flipped around her bill, and pulled up adjacent to the tussock. I looked back at her as I walked between the truck and her--nope; she wasn't intimidated at all. Well hidden within the grasses on the clump of dirt, a limp American Pipit wore its death mask, eyes squeezed shut to slits. I tucked the kestrel's prize back into the grasses. 

I passed several more kestrels across the remainder of the causeway. Not one of them looked as innocent as they had on my way out.

Kris
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