{"id":2170,"date":"2012-01-22T22:01:43","date_gmt":"2012-01-22T22:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/2170"},"modified":"2013-11-06T22:54:18","modified_gmt":"2013-11-06T22:54:18","slug":"perching-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/perching-birds\/","title":{"rendered":"Perching Birds"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Birds perch in all sorts of places. That's one of the benefits of being able to fly. You can get to all sorts of resting points that other creatures can't reach; and you have a built in safety device should you slip. Of course most birds will settle for a branch in a tree, like this greenfinch in our garden this morning.
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Another common perch, especially for this next species, are lamp posts. I'm sure it's the same in other parts of the country, but you can scarcely drive anywhere in Sussex without seeing a kestrel perched high over the road as it searches for rodent trails. This one was doing just that at one of the highest local points, Telscombe, which is about a mile and half from Rottingdean (up hill most of the way!).
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<\/span> Kestrel on a lamp post<\/span><\/p>\n

The street lamp is nice and stable and affords a good view of the surrounding grass verges. A good spot for a kestrel to pick, and one which preserves energy which would otherwise be expended in hovering. Less understandable was the choice of a starling who pick on a decidedly mobile perch. The winds were gusting at the top of the cliffs and the perch was swinging rapidly from side to side.
<\/span> Starling on a weather vane<\/span>
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Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[990,980],"tags":[89,1152,34],"class_list":["post-2170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bird-of-prey","category-birds-2","tag-greenfinch","tag-kestrel","tag-starling","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t