A WALK ON THE WILDSIDE---PAUL FOSTER

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Wednesday 4 July 2012

Kestrel/Little Owl broods!

                                      Waiting intently!
                                    A super site to observe these young Kestrels.
                                 The male alights nearby clutching a vole!
                                    He comes to the ledge with food!
                              A fine looking individual!!
I hope you enjoy looking at this familly of Kestrels that I recently came across in the Pennines.Its not often you can watch young Kestrels at the nest as they are usually to be found high up in old corvids nests or hidden within some barn.I do believe this site has been used for over 30 yrs by the Kestrels, but up to this yr the last time was 6 or 7 yrs back.The cliff face it is on faces east and is roughly 30 ft off the ground.I was about 15 yards away hidden behind some heather.I hoped an adult would return with prey and some 20 mins after I arrived,the male duly obliged by perching on a nearby fencepost before flying in with a vole.The adult only perched for 5 secs before having the vole snatched off it by one of the youngsters!I wasn`t quick enough with the camera to capture the moment but enjoyed watching the young Kestrel devour its meal.To cap off a great day,I captured a brood of young Little Owls enjoying the afternoon sun on my way home!!!!

7 comments:

  1. First of all an amazing header photograph, it's one that made me go wow!
    It's great to hear of the views you had with the kestrels, it's views like this that make us realise what fantastic wildlife we have around us.
    The photographs of the little owls are lovely too.

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  2. How lucky you was to get on to the kestrel with its nest 'full' of young Paul, and you took the advantage of all this to its limits and achieved these excellent images of the birds, and Little Owls on the way home, well....WOW.

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  3. Paul....I took another look at these photographs, the Little Owls are something of a chance in a lifetime opportunity and are worthy of many congratulations.

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    1. Thankyou Peter for all your kind comments.The Little Owls were a bit special,you`ve spurred me on to dig out some more photos for my next blog!

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  4. Superb find, great images telling such a fantastic tale.

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  5. Hi Paul, cracking photos of both the Kestrels and Little Owls.

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  6. Paul.Lots of wonderful youngsters for us to enjoy..fabulous shots all of them..but the little owl family is very special. I agree with Pete Woodruff this was a once in a lifetime chance which you must be very proud of. Speak to you soon re salmon fishing !!!

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