Female Kestrel, Point Reyes National Seashore

This is a photo of a female kestrel as she spreads wings prior to takeoff.

Ready for takeoff.

I went out to Point Reyes Seashore yesterday.  There wasn’t much to see, except for hundreds of people enjoying the day off.  I’m seeing very few elk at Tomales Point since the Park Service let 224 of them die of starvation in 2020 and 2021 while locked up behind that elk-proof fence.   That’s half the herd.

This female kestrel made the day a little brighter.

Kestrel, Point Reyes National Seashore

Male Kestrel Point Reyes National Seashore

A male kestrel perches on a metal fence post.

I love to photograph kestrels, especially the males because of that additional gray/blue color.  I would have preferred a wooden fence post here, or better yet, a nice tree branch.  The post reminds me of a photo contest rule that the camera clubs in the SF Bay Area followed when I was a member of one of the clubs.  I think it was referred to as the Hand-of-Man Rule.  As I recall, if you entered a photo in the nature/wildlife category, there couldn’t be anything in the photo that was man-made.   Obviously, this photo wouldn’t qualify, and rightly so.   I might be more sympathetic if the metal post were a wooden one, especially if the post were very old and weathered, but rules are rules and it’s not easy to make exceptions.  They did have an exception though, which I thought made the whole rule kind of stupid.  As I recall, the exception allowed for photos of wildlife that were collared or tagged in some way.   I could never figure out the justification for that one.  My only thought was that when they wrote the rule there was someone involved in the rule-writing who had a photo of a tagged or collared animal that he/she really wanted to enter in a contest in the wildlife category.  As I write this I wonder if some photos I took recently of a coyote in a field planted with silage for later mowing and feeding to livestock would be prohibited by the hand-of-man rule.  Writing clear rules (or laws) is not easy.

American Kestrel, Point Reyes National Seashore

Kestrel, Point Reyes National Seashore
A female kestrel perches on a fence post in Point Reyes National Seashore.

With a break in the wet weather, I headed out to Point Reyes yesterday afternoon.  It turned out to be a good day.   I saw and photographed several bobcats and coyotes.

I also photographed one of my favorite hawks, the American kestrel.  It’s the smallest member of the falcon family and the most colorful bird of prey that I know of.

Point Reyes has a good population of kestrels.  If you visit the seashore, look for them on fences and bushes.

Kestrel Hunts in the Rain

A kestrel sits on a post during a rain shower.
Kestrel, Point Reyes National Seashore

This female kestrel has just finished a meal and is looking for another.  I assume she has better places to roost when it is raining, but it had been raining for a long time and she probably needed to eat.