Unexpected Visitors!

For those of you who have been along since I started this little bit of literary bumbling you may remember the second post I did about the Demise of the Hen Harrier. Long story short: beautiful raptor found dead in yard. So imagine my joy at sighting not one but TWO raptors as I brought the kids home from the bus stop! If my handy-dandy Peterson Field Guide is correct then this must be a pair of kestrels (Falco tinnunculus). Kestrels are small falcons and these two were gliding and swooping over the hedgerows from field to field, one stopping just long enough for me to grab this image from the van (because no one EVER goes anywhere without a 300mm lense, right).


With any luck they'll hang around and settle into our little corner of paradise so I can write about them a little more and perhaps take a better portrait next time.



Cheers!

~James

A Face Only a Mother Could...

Oh come on now, she HAS to love her little ones, right? But really, not exactly the face one would put on the desk at work.

I was quite excited a few weeks ago to discover the beginnings of a bird nest in the cherry tree of the front yard. Initially a collection of birch twigs and straw, I wasn't sure it would even hold water much less a wiggling young one. But as the weeks progressed I was amazed at how it began to take form and as of 2 weeks ago the inside was a perfect bowl shape, lined with soft grass and moss. Amazing. Not long after, 4 blue speckled eggs appeared. I was going to have quadruplets (surrogate, that is)!

Yesterday while mowing the monster (a.k.a. the yard) I took a quick peek in and saw one chick out and a second struggling to get the shell off of his head. A quick snap and I've left them alone to get a bit of nourishment from mum. Hopefully I've correctly identified the egs as belonging to the Mistle thrush (Turdus viscivorus) with the help of our farmer friend, Graham. Close cousin to the common blackbird (Turdus merula) I'll keep observing from a distance to get a definative ID as I've yet to get a good look at mum on the nest.

Cheers!

~James