25 Thursday Nov 2021
Posted in birds
Tuesday’s walk brought two encounters with birds of prey. First a Buzzard drifted overhead and, not long afterwards, I clocked a Kestrel hovering close by. It always amazes me that these birds have such incredible eyesight that they can spot lunch on the ground from high in the sky.
09 Friday Oct 2020
Posted in birds
I don’t know if this Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) is an inexperienced youngster or simply confident in its ability to escape my attentions, but it is certainly one of the most confiding birds of prey I’ve encountered.
While it was taking a break from hunting over the local farm fields, I managed to get very close to its perch and, even when circling the fields, it flew quite near to me, resulting in probably my best flight photos to date.
There are two resident Kestrels in these coastal fields but this one can immediately be identified by its wonky wing feather, which, fortunately, doesn’t seem to make the slightest difference to its aerial agility.
11 Monday Nov 2019
This Sparrowhawk was hunting over the west paddock at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park this afternoon. Three times I spotted it flying past, landing to check out potential prey and then moving on again empty-clawed.
Sparrowhawks always look smaller than I expect but they are incredibly aerobatic and agile in the air. I watched this one swerving at speed between branches that were swaying in the strong breeze. Once it landed, it was rather ungainly, struggling to maintain its balance on bushes as it peered down for the bird it had been chasing.
What a pleasure it was to watch such a magnificent creature! I’m only sorry the photos don’t do it justice – it was a little too distant.
20 Tuesday Nov 2018
Tags
birding, birds of prey, birdwatching, British birds, Circus cyaneus, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Hen harrier, raptors
‘It flies so low that sometimes it seems to be stirring the grass, its long legs trailing through the heather like a keel. A slow tacking flight: float then flap.’ This description of a Hen harrier’s flight pattern is from the library book I’m currently reading, Raptor: A journey through birds by James Macdonald Lockhart (4th Estate, London, 2016) and, by sheer coincidence, I watched a Hen harrier fly just like this yesterday.
I was at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, walking along the central hedgerow in the west paddock, on the lookout for winter thrushes, and had just walked down into a dip in the field when, with a loud whooshing sound, a large bird flew almost over my head.
I immediately turned and looked up, swung up the camera and clicked as many times as I could before the hedgerow blocked my view. Walking quickly up out of the dip, I watched the bird, pursued by a couple of Carrion crows, dodge eastwards, then veer back west and head down over the west lake reed beds and on towards the coast.
But what was it? It seemed quite large but I didn’t think it was a Buzzard. There had been a Sparrowhawk harassing the smaller birds a couple of days previously, but the flight didn’t seem right for that – not the flap, flap, glide that Sprawks are known for. This bird had been flying very low and relatively slowly.
I had been out walking for about 5 hours by this time and was getting cold, so decided to head home. Hot cuppa in hand, I grabbed by trusty RSPB Handbook of British Birds, transferred my photos on to my laptop and opened up Photoshop. As the day had been gloomy, the shots all needed lightening and heavy cropping to get a better look at the bird. When I consulted my handbook, I found a bird that matched but couldn’t believe it was right. Luckily, my birding friend John was online so I flicked him a message with four photos … and waited.
Yay! He confirmed the match, a Hen harrier (Circus cyaneus), from its colouring either a female or a juvenile – it certainly looks exactly like the juvenile image in my book. This is quite a rare bird locally so I was absolutely over the moon to have seen this beauty.
23 Tuesday Oct 2018
Tags
birding, birds of prey, birdwatching, British birds, Goldfinch, Lavernock coastal fields, Linnet, Penarth-Lavernock coastal path, Sparrowhawk, Sparrowhawk trying to catch prey
Until the farmer decided to plough them last week, the fields alongside the coastal path between Penarth and Lavernock were alive with birds, hundreds, perhaps thousands of Linnets and Goldfinches.
For those fascinated by birds, it was a feast for the eyes but for the local birds of prey, it was just a feast … or, at least, this Sparrowhawk was fervently hoping it would be a feast.
However, although I watched it for over an hour one day, flap-flap-flap-gliding effortlessly overhead and then swooping very low and very fast over the fields, I never saw it actually catch anything.
It seems the Sparrowhawk mostly went hungry and most of the little finches lived to fly another day.
01 Sunday Oct 2017
Before this week I’d only ever seen one Harris’s hawk (Parabuteo unicinctus) and that was a captive bird, located then at Cardiff Castle and one of several species of birds of prey used to scare away the ever-increasing numbers of feral pigeon and gull that are making their homes in our big cities. The presence of birds of prey in the skies above city buildings and factories, combined with the ear-piercing cries they emit, are enough to advertise that the territory belongs to them.
However, one Harris’s Hawk has escaped (no one knows where it escaped from) and is now living happily in the wild not far from where I live. Apparently, it’s been in the area for about a year, and I’ve been keeping an eye out for it while out walking. Last Thursday I finally spotted it and managed to get a few photos.
The Harris’s Hawk is not native to Britain – it hails from the Americas – but it’s a bird that is often used in falconry and as an airborne pest controller. I guess some birds just decide they’d rather be free – and who can blame them?
earthstar 
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