Looks Like We've Got A Family Of American Kestrels Living With Us...

Of course, since I knew nothing about the subject, I was, understandably...

wrong.

You see, for the past few weeks, every time I step out on my back deck, a bird swoops down and tries to scare me away with squawking and hovering in the air then dive-bombing me in order to get me off the deck and back into my house. And for the past several weeks, it's worked.

And since I had no way to identify types of birds, I assumed it was a red-tailed hawk.

And you know what they say about assuming...

I found out that this bird was not a red-tailed hawk, but was instead, an American Kestrel falcon. This information was given to me at FantasyCon by some bird of prey owners. I showed them a picture of the attacking bird and they informed me that we've got a pair of falcons nesting in one of the nooks on our house. Here's some info on these smallest flacon in the United States: Wikipedia Link.

For years people have been fascinated by pairs of nesting peregrine falcons who have chosen one of Salt Lake City's most recognizable buildings as their home. They have webcams set up and everything. Looks like our little house has the same thing...kind of...but without webcams.