The deep freeze seems to have ended, and the temperatures today were really quite mild for January. Mild enough, that is, for a couple of hours on the Downs tracking kestrels. Some days are good, others bad, and sometimes there are just too many opportunities to keep count. Today was like that. I filled an 8GB data card with shots. Some of them were destined for the recycle bin (currently creaking with over 3GB of data), and I was able to dispose of shots that on previous occasions I would certainly have clung on to. Needless to say only a small proportion have been processed.
My first sighting was as I parked the car. A good omen, even if it had disappeared by the time I'd unpacked the camera. I wandered down into the valley where I'd previously had some success, but the next appearance was back towards the road; and it was a pair. They seemed to be having some sort of spat over the territory. The female was clearly dominant.
Female kestrel chasing a male
I tracked her for while until she disappeared over the hill. Next up was a male kestrel which I saw swoop down into the grass. He attracted a small crowd of watchers while he devoured his prey (a worm).
Male kestrel
He was remarkably unaffected by the half dozen or so people watching, and didn't miss a beat when a large dog wandered past.
He proved a particularly cooperative subject. The standard pattern of hunting is to cover a lateral line by hovering over a spot, and then moving sideways along the line to the next point. This means it is fairly easy to predict roughly where the next hover will occur. Then the only issue is getting sun-side of him.
Hovering kestrel
For most of the hovering shots I was crouched down beneath him, probably around 20 feet away. From a distance this is what you would generally see.
Distant kestrel
It was good exercise for both of us, and I was not displeased when he adopted their secondary hunting technique: perching.
Perching kestrel
Even in this mode they move along a line, making the short flight between resting points.
Perching kestrel
These shots make up – to a degree – to my total lack of success with foxes at the moment. The nicked-ear vixen is still around (she was in the garden a few minutes ago), but she's currently very intolerant of disturbance. So much as I would love to be able to add a new photo of her, I'll have to make do with one more from this afternoon.
There are more shots from today in the January Birds album.
Camera note: all shots taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.
cakkleberrylane
12 Jan 2009Beautiful shots. They are such stunning birds!
suicidalstones
12 Jan 2009Excellent photos. I appreciate the way you take us through the event by discussing each pic.
Joe
Dudley
12 Jan 2009Great stuff :up:
gdare
12 Jan 2009Especially that one when he turned head on the right while flying 🙂 Beautiful!
annoushkiss
12 Jan 2009Great post, Words, informative and with stunning bird pictures :up:
Hope you'll be a success with your fox friend soon 😉
SittingFox
12 Jan 2009Just fabulous! All of these pictures are magnificent. Such beautiful birds.
Ukwildlife
12 Jan 2009Fantastic photos. I was watching one for a while through binoculars yesterday, but the moment I tried to point my camera at it, it flew off!
Words
12 Jan 2009Adele, thanks. I had a feeling they'd be out after the frost cleared.
Words
12 Jan 2009Joe, it's a pleasure! They're great fun to photograph because you really can work out what you are doing with them, and they stay stock-still in the air so you can move around and get different angles.
Words
12 Jan 2009Thanks Lois! I love watching them on days like yesterday.
Words
12 Jan 2009Anna, I'll have to wait and see with the foxes. They're in control, but thanks for the comment about the kestrels. 😀
Words
12 Jan 2009Neil, it can be frustrating but if I wait long enough I'm usually in luck at this location. There are several kestrels that hunt there and they are all fairly used to small numbers of people being around.
Words
12 Jan 2009Andy, thanks!
Words
12 Jan 2009Darko, I'd been watching him turn his head each side (looking for prey), so took a quick burst.
sprogger
17 Jan 2009Great shots :up:
Words
17 Jan 2009Thanks!
Vulpes vulpes
21 Jan 2009Wow! 😮 😀
Words
21 Jan 2009Thanks! Definitely a good day for them.
chthoniid
27 Jan 2009Lovely- nice to see the kestrel cooperating with a bit of perching and posing 🙂
Words
28 Jan 2009Thanks Brendan. I couldn't really have wished for any more. Impeccable cooperation!