{"id":1822,"date":"2011-01-16T23:01:17","date_gmt":"2011-01-16T23:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/1822"},"modified":"2013-11-09T21:20:37","modified_gmt":"2013-11-09T21:20:37","slug":"kestrels-in-the-morning-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/kestrels-in-the-morning-sun\/","title":{"rendered":"Kestrels in the morning sun&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->One of the true delights of living in the South Downs are the kestrels, and this morning I stopped off at Sheepcote Valley. It&#39;s a great site for watching them as they hover over the tangle of grasses and brambles, and sweep back and forth from one vantage point to the next., systematically covering the ground. These shots are of a female kestrel.<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/kestrel_1601117968.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/kestrel_1601117973.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/kestrel_1601117976.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/kestrel_1601117941.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/kestrel_1601117948.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/kestrel_1601117951.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>The morning sunshine didn&#39;t last out the day, and by this afternoon we were back with grey skies and scant light. Not that the starlings mind too much. A small flock of 100 or so gathered in a tree at the end of our garden. These next two shots were taken at deliberately low shutter speeds (1\/125s and 1\/160s) in an attempt to catch a sense of the flock&#39;s motion rather than the fine detail of individual birds.<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/starlings_1601118051.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/starlings_1601118054.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>This evening we&#39;re once again shrouded in mist (one of the disadvantages of being high in the Downs). The foxes are being evasive. I can hear some chattering calls nearby, but I&#39;ve not seen them.  But I have been looking in the pond. I mentioned in <a href=\"http:\/\/my.opera.com\/Words\/blog\/pond-life\" target=\"_blank\">yesterday&#39;s post<\/a> that I&#39;d seen a newt. I had better luck with the camera tonight. Good to see these beautiful amphibians back again after the harsh winter.<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/newt_1601118067.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/newt_1601118083.jpg' \/><\/span> <br \/><span class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/natureblognetwork.com\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/natureblognetwork.com\/button.php?u=Words\" width=\"0\" height=\"0\" alt=\"Nature Blog Network\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/span><br \/><i>Camera note: all kestrel and starling shots taken with the Canon 40D and EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. The newts were photographed with the EF 24-105 F4L IS USM lens.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[990,980,1026],"tags":[1152,114,34],"class_list":["post-1822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bird-of-prey","category-birds-2","category-newt-amphibians-2","tag-kestrel","tag-newt","tag-starling","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1822\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}