I was out with pal John for our (not quite so) regular Thursday session (these days), and we'd had our picnic lunch in the company of a Little Owl at my Site No.34. It was our third and last owl on a rather windy day.
We'd just set off afterwards, and were heading up a rather rough single-track road when I spotted what, on first impression, looked like a clod of soil being thrown up and dropping down again on the other side of the fence about 70 metres up the road on my side (I was driving). I stopped the car to see if I could see what was going on, and a Kestrel flew up from the bottom of the fence and landed on a fence post, maybe 50 metres away. It then flew down again before landing on a nearer fence post around 30 metres away. I was just starting to open my door so I could lean out and take a photo when it flew down again. Fortunately I had the presence of mind to close my door again and it flew up and landed on a post about 4 metres from my head! I had to wind back the lens from full 500 mm to 340 mm in order to frame the bird (the header is uncropped in width). Sadly, I did not have time to adjust my settings from my last attempt at photography that day - they were totally inappropriate. However, although I could have done better, the results are not too bad. I can see from the image metadata that it stayed for just under 3 seconds before departing into the distance.
I've not been out birding since then, primarily due to poor weather, but hope to put that right tomorrow.
Thank you for dropping by,
 |
| Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) (female) - near Somerby |
Thank you for dropping by,
