{"id":1561,"date":"2010-01-16T18:01:24","date_gmt":"2010-01-16T18:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/1561"},"modified":"2013-11-11T22:53:28","modified_gmt":"2013-11-11T22:53:28","slug":"an-unusual-raptor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/an-unusual-raptor\/","title":{"rendered":"An unusual raptor…"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

I was out in the fields near work yesterday. There were fieldfares and redwings hugging the tree line, and a small flock of black-headed gulls searching for worms in the fast-melting snow.
<\/span> Black-headed gull with worm<\/span><\/p>\n

Other than the gulls it was relatively quiet, until a flock of rooks raced into view, followed by a flock of smaller birds which wheeled off to the right. Something had caused them to behave like this and sure enough a large raptor came into view. It wasn't a kestrel or sparrowhawk, nor was it a buzzard. My first instinct was that it could be a peregrine (as much on the basis of eliminating the species I knew it wasn't, and taking account of what the local wild raptor population is). It was only when I got the photos home that I had my doubts. <\/p>\n

I don't have an absolute i.d., but the consensus from some on-line discussion is that it's a Barbary or Barbary\/peregrine hybrid. It's a captive falconry bird that has escaped. The general opinion was also that the bird – unfortunately – does not look in good condition. Clearly it is still hunting as it chased the rooks into the woods and only emerged several minutes later. Whether or not it was successful I don't know.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I will post some of the shots I managed as it flew overhead.
<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

Back out on the paths (still with some snow on them) I came across some tracks. I think this is a badger, but I'm sure someone here will confirm or correct me on that.
<\/span> Badger track in snow?<\/span><\/p>\n

I'm going to miss the snow now that it's gone, particularly as it's been replaced by constant mist and drizzle, so here's a reminder of how things were earlier this week.
<\/span>
\"Nature<\/a><\/span>
Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 40D and EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens, with the exception of the badger (?) track and the fox which were taken 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":[990,980,4,16],"tags":[68,293,611],"class_list":["post-1561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bird-of-prey","category-birds-2","category-foxes","category-snow","tag-gull","tag-raptor","tag-track","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561","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=1561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}