There's a bunch of little red birds, with brown wings, that hangs out in the bushes with the sparrows and chickadees. I thought at first they were a young cardinal, because I see lots of them. But they are too small. So, I consulted Google, and turns out, they are a rosy house finch! They are lovely.
Then few days ago, I saw a large bird, I'd say about 10 inches tall, fly onto the wire that goes across our yard to the alley. Its back was to me, but it had a black cap, and dark wings. The space between the wings was lighter and spotted just a little. The bird was being pissy, sitting on the wire and squawking, doing that head-bob warning birds sometimes do. I looked at it for a long time, five whole minutes or so, until it flew away. I thought "Was that a kestral? that was a kestral!" But I'm not a birder by any means, so I had to look it up. Agian, I put its description into Google. Sure enough it was a kestral! This photo is exactly what it looked liked, found on the St. Louis Audobon Society. It was even in this position as I watched it. So cool! I've got a feeder out ther, but now I'm wondering if I should put some mice on a plate, or fish in a pond for the kestrals...
