Falcon At The Temple

I learned that the bird from last week's post is a falcon.  I arrived early this morning to see if I could spot him again.

Mornings are my favorite time of day to see the temple.

My father taught me to identify birds.  These are geese heading south.  Not what I was looking for.

On Tuesday I saw the falcon on the west side, so that's where I started looking today.

In no time at all I saw him!  By the way he soared, I knew this was a falcon.

He landed on Moroni's trumpet so I could get a good look.  Thank goodness for my zoom lens. 

This is an American Kestrel falcon, the size of a Mourning dove. The coloring indicates he's male. 

If you are wondering why we haven't seen pigeons for a while, he is one of the reasons.

The workmen have dubbed him Moroni the Younger.

Beautiful clouds played havoc with the sun.

I don't mind clouds, but the sun might have warmed things up a bit.

My gloves, of course, were in the car.

I asked again about the statue and was told to study my scriptures.

No man knoweth the day or the hour, they say.

There are still blue dots.

The open house begins next month.

This contractor is probably well aware of that fact.

I peeked in the pavilion.

These handles match the handles on the temple.

I recognized a beehive shape in the handles similar to this arch.

The doorways have beautiful new lighting.  This is the north entrance.

The south entrance is still stunning, and the sun helped when it finally came out.

The windows reflected the morning rays.

The bricks vary a little in color depending on what the sun is doing...

...reminiscent of a cold-blooded creature in that respect.

Besides keeping an eye out for the falcon, I looked for signs of life.

Even cold weather brings beautiful surprises.

More snow is in the forecast.

Actually, a surprise I'm waiting for is the construction fence to disappear.