Today’s image comes from Hallo Bay Bear Camp in Alaska. I’m going back through my older material and posting some images that have not been previously published. While photographing the coastal brown bears of Hallo Bay in 2004, I looked around and found this little guy had magically appeared behind us. Someone there said it was an American Kestrel, but now that I’m taking a closer look at it, I see it is not a kestrel. This is the only image I captured, before it magically disappeared. If I have my ID correct, this is a Merlin (Falco columbarius), and a lifer fore me, at that! If I have the ID wrong, I’d certainly appreciate a corrected ID!
Although we travel to Hallo Bay for the coastal brown bears, we quite often see or hear lots of different wildlife there. But this was my one and only “magician”!