Category Archives: Bird of Prey

Kestrel

June 14, 2014 by Words | 8 Comments

A very quick post before the football kicks off. Three photos of a hovering kestrel taken this afternoon at Sheepcote Valley.

Kestrel

Kestrel

Kestrel

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.

Tagged |

Just a Hobby (Falco subbuteo)

June 12, 2014 by Words | 2 Comments

The Hobby is a small, peregrine-like falcon which appears in our skies during the summer months. Hobbies winter in Africa. The can be identified by the vertical barring on their body. They are fast and graceful in flight, and from a distance the pattern of flight can sometimes resemble the swift. I spotted this one over Falmer Pond today. The photos are all very hefty crops, but the first sequence is interesting in that the bird is eating on the wing. Its prey is some sort of insect.

Hobby,

Hobby,

Hobby,

Hobby,

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D and EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens.

Tagged |

Kestrel plus Young Rats

May 22, 2014 by Words | 4 Comments

Two short sequences from today. The first is of a kestrel at Sheepcote Valley early this morning. I stopped off there on my way to work, tramped around the valley for a while without seeing much of anything only to spot the kestrel hovering over the car park as I was about to leave. There was no time to follow it around, so just a couple of photos (nicely set off against the blue sky which conveniently emerged from behind the earlier cloud cover).

kestrel

kestrel

Back at Falmer Pond I think the great tits have fledged, and I think this is one of the youngsters. It was hopping around in the branches of a tree near the nest hole (which was quiet).

Fledgling great tit

As for the rats, they too are busy breeding. They would be. They’re rats. Still, rats can be cute in a roguish sort of way.

rat

Just checking the coast is clear

rat

Looks safe to me

Baby rats

Are you feeling brave?

eats

Sorted!

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.

Also posted in Behaviour, Birds, rats Tagged , , , |