Tucson’s Cutest Raptor

The WINGS office is smackdab in the middle of urban Tucson, but our views are good, especially on days like this when fresh snow has piled up on the Catalinas. If you step outside and position yourself just right, most of the urban chaos disappears and there’s nothing–almost–but wildness in sight.

We have a few birds around, too, as every Tucson neighborhood does. Gila Woodpeckers shriek non-stop from the fruiting olive tree out the window, and the local Anna’s Hummingbird is popping and scratching in display every morning when I arrive. Today I happened to step out of the car just as a lovely female American Kestrel arrived, swooping to an elegant landing atop a telephone pole and eying the parking lot carefully for anything small and edible.

I failed to qualify–fortunately, given the intensity of that falconid gaze.