Monday, July 19, 2010

Just as many thought!

See

http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=2206

4 comments:

Jeff Cox said...

After having said that up to May this year I hadn't seen any Kestrels in their usual locations, I have now seen 4 in the last few days - 2 over the Long Stoop (just along from Stoodley Pike) on Friday evening; 1 over Oxenhope Moor this morning; 1 over West Scout (by Gaddings Dam) this afternoon. Hopefully they have had a good breeding season this year but only time will tell.

Mike Henshaw said...

3 pairs between Park Wood and J 25 on M62.

David Sutcliffe said...

Succesful breeding near Wainstalls with 2 fledged young last week. Certainly more Kestrels seen this last 2/3 weeks probably indicating succesful breeding season locally(?)The spell of good weather in May and June probably helped a lot - as it seems to have done for our local Linnet and Meadow Pipit populations.

Goldon Gordon said...

We don't see many Kestrels here on the Llyn Peninsula, probably the least sighted of all the raptors here. But we did watch what appeared to be an immature kestrel trying to nab Sand Martins as they left and entered their nest burrows last Sunday afternoon. The kestrel perched above the burrows in the cliff face on a tree root and made occasional sorties to try and grab a martin as it landed or took off. It missed each time as we watched it for around 20 mins from the beach below but was still trying when we left. The Merlins we have seen hanging around Sand Martin burrows always hover in the wind just off the cliff face and usually operate in pairs. Presumably both raptors are trying for the young birds rather than the adults who seem to have no real difficulty on dodging the attacks.