After work, I felt like I needed to get outside, so I took the dog with me over to Desmond Road by the Cosumnes River Preserve.  They don’t let dogs onto the preserve, but I can walk him along Desmond Road which flanks some of the wetlands areas adjacent to the preserve.  We saw the ubiquitous ducks and geese, but also saw some Turkey Vultures, Black-Necked Stilts, a Say’s Phoebe, Red-Winged Blackbirds, Meadowlarks, some Sandhill Cranes “slumming” with a small flock of chubby Coots, and two raptors: an American Kestrel and a Red-Shouldered Hawk, both of whom “posed” for me for a little while.  I saw the hawk pounce on prey twice while I was watching him, and got some shots of him in the scrubby grass alongside the wetlands.