More Kestrels

Kestrels can be like buses around here. You don’t see one for days and then several come along one after the other. That’s how it was today, so I came home with more pictures of Kestrels but not much else. 

The morning started at Fluke Hall, breezy cool and cloudy and not many birds to be found, just a single Redwing feeding with a couple of Blackbirds in the hedgerow and a dozen or so Tree Sparrows, a few of which were visiting nest boxes. Male Tree Sparrows are known to display at colonies in the autumn as a means of reinforcing ownership of previous nest sites. First year males do it also as a way of finding new sites of their own for the coming season even though it is months away. It's known as "recrudescence" and other species do it too, including the humble Robin  but please don't ask me to name them all.

Tree Sparrow

There was a good sized party of titmice moving through the wood, mainly Long-tailed Tits again, and it’s rather strange that this, the most fragile of the tit family seems to be the most numerous of the lot this year. As I watched them move through the wood a Sparrowhawk shot away from the trees where it had must have been lying in wait for a passing meal. 

Further along the road at Damside I logged the first Kestrel of the day close to their regular nest box. On the wet fields here I counted 1400 Lapwing, 42 Redshank, 35 Curlew and 30 Golden Plover. 

Kestrel

I drove across Piling Moss and clocked 2 more Kestrels, a Little Owl, 15 Tree Sparrows, 20 Whooper Swan, 2 Yellowhammer, 40 Fieldfare and 1 Redwing. After the late October rush there are still a number of Fieldfares searching the rather scant hawthorn crop, with Redwings much harder to find at the moment. 

The Fieldfare's name is reckoned to come from the old English "feldefare" which probably meant "traveller through the fields".

Fieldfare

Fieldfare

The two Kestrels were hunting the stubble fields, using the roadside telegraph poles from which to spot prey below, the wind across the open moss ruffling their insulation feathers. 

Kestrel

 

Kestrel

For a short while the sun came out and the wind seemed to drop as I tried to photograph the second Kestrel as it warmed up for a dive to the stubble below. Click the pictures for a full frame slide show - that Kestrel really means business.

Kestrel

Kestrel

Kestrel

I journeyed on to Rawcliffe Moss for yet another Kestrel, 2 Buzzard, 2 Jay, 35 Chaffinch, 30 Tree Sparrow, 8 Goldfinch, 1 Goldcrest, 1 Tawny Owl and a mighty flock of 400+ Woodpigeon. 

There’s rain forecast for tomorrow which might entail a morning out shopping with my better half, but with luck Another Bird Blog will be out again soon looking for more Kestrels. If so be the first to read about it here by logging in soon.

This week Another Bird Blog is linking with Anni and Stewart again, plus Weekly Top Shot