Everything is Permuted

I'm never sure it's a good idea to give precise locations in these instances, but the following photos were taken at a local nature reserve in Sussex. I'd gone in search of demoiselle dragonflies, but before we made it to the ponds we came across one of the nesting boxes. There were four young kestrels skipping in and out, and over a period of time we were rewarded with the adult male coming in twice with prey. The first time the chicks disappeared into the box with it. On the second feeding, the largest of the chicks kept the kill (a bank vole by the look of it) to itself.

This is a small selection of photos. There are more over on my website.

First there was one

Kestrel chick in profile

Then two more appeared

Three's a crowd

Four young kestrels

The adult is overhead

Delivering the food

Off hunting again

Second delivery

The handover

The handover continues

The greedy chick doesn't share this time

Two chicks waiting for Papa!

All the shots were taken from a safe distance away, and many are heavily cropped. I also took some video which has a fairly lengthy feeding sequence near the end. It's long (8 minutes approx).

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Camera note: all shots were taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. The video was taken with the Sony Handycam DCR SX30, supported on a monopod.

I'll come to the title of the post later, but I thought I should provide an update about the gull chicks. Well, they've flown the nest. They were gone on Wednesday morning when I went to look So here's the final shot, taken on Tuesday.


It seems early for them to have flown, but they may well have ended up on a neighbouring roof where there seems to be an increased presence of chicks. My access isn't nearly so good though, so I won't be able to monitor them as easily. Here's a number of numbered chicks (they're ringed) on one of the other buildings, taken on Wednesday through a thick glass window.


Meanwhile, after last night's fox excitement the third of the troupe showed up tonight. The 'nicked-ear' vixen is much the less sociable of the foxes, but she makes up for it by being the most persistent hunter. She was probably after insects in this sequence. I've added several more from tonight to the July Fox Gallery.





Which brings me to the point of this post. I'd had a very quiet day with the camera as I had lunchtime meeting and only managed to grab a couple of poor shots of a rook during the day. The garden seemed quiet as well when I got home. Apart from some gulls and the occasional pigeon, not much was happening. Until, that is, I saw a small dark shape fly high over the garden. I grabbed about three or four frames before it disappeared, and wasn't at all sure what I'd seen until I uploaded the photos to the computer.




The bird in question is a Hobby. It's very similar to the peregrine falcon, but has a slightly brighter face, and vertical striping on the body which you can just about discern in the second of these shots. One of the more unusual sightings, the hobby is a non-native summer visitor from Africa.

Camera note: the birds were all taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. For the vixen I used the EF70-300mm 4.5-5.6 DO IS lens.

The young gulls were asleep this morning when I went to check on them. I took a couple of reference shots and was about to leave them to it when an adult turned up. Not just any adult, but an adult with FOOD!


That shot is of the chick on the 'lower deck' of the roof. The feeding set off a minor temper tantrum on the 'upper deck' where the smaller of the two chicks was feeling left out!




It wasn't long before 'lower deck' was joining in.


As for other recent news, I'd been told about a field near work where buzzards are frequently seen. I popped over to the approximate area yesterday, and sure enough it wasn't long before one appeared. I took several shots, and although most were too distant I've added a selection to the June Birds album. The other major sighting while I was there was a heron in flight. That's the first I've seen round here (photo is dire but is in the album).



As an added bonus, the views of the South Downs were spectacular.



I've also made a couple of visits to the dew pond this week to see the dragonflies. They're not too abundant yet, but I did see some newts surfacing in the warm weather. Their appearance is an important confirmation of the maturing of the pond which was constructed 3 or 4 years ago. As far as I know this is the first year they've been in evidence.

In the garden we've had a hedgehog visiting, and on the fox front there was a brief visit by the bold vixen earlier in the week (that's a sausage in her mouth, by the way), and tonight the old dog fox put in an appearance for the first time since last weekend.



Camera note: all shots on this page taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens, except the vixen photo which was taken with the EF 24-105 F4L IS USM lens.