Kiersten has been busy with her camera while I’ve been busy with work, and I think these two shots particularly are worth a closer look. Two images of the same falcon, hunting over Kiersten’s house earlier today. The grey head and the black detail at the end of the long, straight tail in the second image immediately suggest a male Kestrel, hanging motionless with its head into the wind…but take a closer at its head in the first shot…
The male Kestrel clearly shows the falcon “teardrop” or dark, moustachial strip on its face, together with a whiter patch behind it on the lower cheek. This bird has the blue-grey head but shows a distinctly clear, plain grey cheek, with none of those details present. There could be elongated feathers in the tail too, suggesting in fact the return of a seasonal visitor from winter quarters in Africa. It’s a tough call this one, and we’d love to hear anyone with any definite ideas…but well done Kiersten, I think you may have just snapped our first Lesser Kestrel of the year…
Difficult to separate this summer migrant from the familiar resident Kestrel…the females in particular are very simillar. Slightly different habits and behaviour can help but the uniform, grey cheeks of the male Lesser Kestrel are an important distinction, captured I think by Kiersten today. It would be fantastic to have this Mediterranean speciality back again for the warmer months…a sharp fall in numbers over recent years has caused concern over the conservation of this species, so to have them breeding locally again this year would be wonderful.
We’ll keep you up to date with all the bird of prey news as the days progress…so please, as always, keep checking our updates!
