On an arctic-cold afternoon, three volunteers were raking sticks and leaves into the remains of four bonfires in Somme Woods. We uncovered the soil to facilitate planting seeds in the under-restoration area. Our work was appreciated by a dark-eyed junco which was busily finding food where we raked. Suddenly a kestrel dove at the junco, which niftily evaded it.
Kestrels aren't so much woodland birds, but western Somme Woods is being restored to its original savanna state, so perhaps we should expect to see more of them. But today was a surprise!
It perched on a nearby snag, still on the hunt. Soon it took off again, swooped down, caught a mouse and flew triumphantly far out over Second Pond marsh. But it was just doing a victory lap, because it then came right back toward us, landed atop the same snag, and let us watch as it tucked into a mousy feast!
"We must be doing something right," said Christos. The kestrel had joined us and hunted in the precise area where we cut brush and opened the canopy to savanna structure on recent workdays.
We didn't get photos at that time, but you can pretty much see what we saw in the great Somme Prairie Grove shots taken earlier by Lisa Culp Musgrave.
Words by Eriko Kojima
Photos by Lisa Musgrave
Habitat by the Cook County Forest Preserves
