Sunday, January 25, 2009

Man defeated by kestrel

Half an hour on the windy Promenade this afternoon was enough for this 160-pound, well-insulated human male, but the 4-ounce kestrel seemed to be taking in the cold in stride. He was perched about a block away from the streetlamp,near the water, bob-bob-bobbing his tail. He did take off once for a short loop through the air. This is called hawking, even when its done by non-raptors: the birds circle through the air to pick off insects before returning to a perch. Of course, there were no bugs in this weather, which is bringing down boreal birds (white-winged crossbills & snow buntings have been reported) to the region. There are a couple of rough grassy areas near both the lamp perch and the fence perch that rodents and small birds can enjoy, however. When I left, the kestrel was still there.

2 comments:

amarilla said...

Dude, don't be so hard on yourself! The feathers are the supernacular insulators. Risotto simply doesn't compare.

Hydne is the word of the moment. Someday I'll have to tell you the word that has made me pay attention to this madness.

Matthew said...

True; the risotto all runs down to the boots.