A tiny kestrel on the hunt

This smallest of falcons was hunting at Fountain Bluff near Liberty, Missouri...it's a sports complex, quiet in winter, and he was perched high on one of the huge outdoor lights.

Kestrels often hunt from these high perches...trees, wires, telephone poles...and yesterday I watched one hover, wings beating madly, before dropping on some hapless critter. 

This one's a male--you can tell by his blue-gray wings.