Last weekend, just before a family birthday celebration, my wife, older son and I were able to spend about an hour at a small open meadow preserve named Pogonip (a Native American word believed to mean "icy fog") in Santa Cruz, California. It was beautiful day and very nice surroundings but not many birds. Then I noticed this American Kestrel land on an oak tree some distance away. I took a series of shots every so often as we worked our way along the trail and closer to the Kestrel. At the trail's closest approach to the oak tree, I was able to get some decent shots of what turned out to be a female Kestrel. After a minute or two, she finally couldn't take the attention any longer and made a graceful exit. The shots were taken with a Canon 20D using a Canon 100-400mm at 1/1000, f/11, 400 ISO.