{"id":22919,"date":"2025-06-20T02:50:52","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T02:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/goatbells.blog\/?p=22919"},"modified":"2025-06-20T02:50:55","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T02:50:55","slug":"a-mighty-kestrels-lunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goatbells.blog\/?p=22919","title":{"rendered":"A mighty kestrel’s lunch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While out riding along the Mckenzie River today, with the flowers blooming, the sun shining, and the wind blowing, a diving small raptor caught my attention. – truly out of side of eye as I was coasting down a hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wasn’t sure what it was at first – it dove, and then waveringly flew up to a nearby post. It had to be a kestrel<\/a> or merlin<\/a> given the size. I was far from it’s post and the telephoto lens extended all the way …<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a surprise … a mighty kestrel had caught a mouse, vole, mole or other tiny rodent. Kestrels are fabulous to watch and so surprisingly fast and strong for such a little thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clicking on a photo will open larger, higher resolution view<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I watched for a few minutes, turned my head, and when looked back- gone! Both bird and prey; the post top was empty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ride<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Went out Coburg Rd over the Mckenzie and then Mckenzie View Dr and Hill Dr to Marcola Road and around the Mohawk General store and back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Just a conditioning ride. No panniers nor front handlebar bags; just frame packs. Wind was strong coming back so influenced my speed. My front sprocket was also stuck (why?) in small gear for entire ride – adjustments required.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While out riding along the Mckenzie River today, with the flowers blooming, the sun shining, and the wind blowing, a diving small raptor caught my attention. – truly out of side of eye as I was coasting down a hill. I wasn’t sure what it was at first – it dove, and then waveringly flew…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22925,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,6],"tags":[48],"class_list":["post-22919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bikepacking","category-photo-chasing","tag-kestrel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/goatbells.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSCN0815.jpg?fit=2048%2C1536&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goatbells.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goatbells.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goatbells.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goatbells.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goatbells.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22919"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/goatbells.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22928,"href":"https:\/\/goatbells.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22919\/revisions\/22928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goatbells.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goatbells.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goatbells.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goatbells.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}