Author Topic: The littlest raptor spotted in Hackensack  (Read 3642 times)

Offline BLeafe

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The littlest raptor spotted in Hackensack
« on: January 04, 2012, 04:45:41 PM »
I saw another good-sized gull sitting atop the First Presbyterian Church's weather vane on a recent cloudy day (first picture). All of a sudden, it appeared to notice some threat, crouched down, and started to raise its wings for flight (second picture).

It got out of there in a big hurry and the second it left, the "threat" landed on another part of the vane (third picture). I wondered why a big gull would be afraid of this small bird...............until I got a closer look and saw a tiny slightly-curved beak (fourth picture).

Is that a kestrel? I photographed one in Alpine 3 months ago that I posted here: 

http://www.hackensacknow.org/index.php/topic,2121.0.html

A friend who photographs raptors confirmed that it was, indeed, the smallest member of the falcon family and that it DOES scare bigger birds.



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