Provocative kestrel

Finding a place for a photographic hike during snowless winter in Iowa is not an easy task. There is a little bit of snow on the ground, but not enough to cover the ground and create interesting shapes. There are no colors anywhere, except of the overwhelming brown, trees, grass, leaves, everything has the same hue. And then, right on weekend, when you hope for sun and blue sky, it gets overcast and just boring.
With all of this, we had just one place we could think of to go and spend Sunday afternoon. Raptor Center at Lake McBride Nature Recreation Area. This place offers a wonderful bird blind, about which I will write later this week, butterfly garden (of course not this time of the year), prairie restoration and the major project- place where sick or injured raptors can recover. We walked around, when unexpectedly we were “attacked” by american kestrel. We figured he was drawn to the heavy gloves my husband had, maybe reminding him of the gloves handlers have (notice the leather handles attached to his feet). He sure wanted to play with those gloves.