Dawn came round too quickly (must bring more rohypnol next time) and after several coffee's we wandered to the heath to join the gathered hoard (more of a small crowd).
After an hour there was no sign, though a Stone Curlew and a stampede of Red Deer helped ease the tension. A small bird of prey miles away on the horizon tempted us away from the heath and along the access road to Minsmere, roughly the area where the aforementioned bird was. We saw no further sign of it but had a calling Lesser Pecker and a booming Bittern. A kindly birder pulled up alongside me on the way back to the car and informed me of the Kestrel's presence back on the heath!! Ten minutes later we were back by the quarry where after an anxious 10 minute wait it showed distantly but well on and off for the next couple of hours. The crowds at these weekday gatherings are usually a much more pleasant affair and this one was no exception to this, though the poor bloke behind me who called the Kestrel only to be told that it was a Chaffinch must have felt a right tit - but to his credit he enjoyed a laugh along with the rest of us.
It would have been impolite not to visit nearby Lowestoft, for the couple of Alpine Swifts along the sea front, so we did. The sight of these two desperate creatures clinging to the front of an apartment blog was quite pitiful as they looked pretty knackered and despite a few brief ariel jaunts they were surely getting very little food. With the weather outlook not looking great I fear the worse.
Another one of Suffolk's swifts, this time a Pallid, was just down the road at Kessingland though unlike it's Alpine cousins it was seemingly having more success - choosing to feed over a presumably insect rich sewage works. That is until we arrived where we were greeted by just two Swallows and a White Wag'.
All avenues explored we headed home - "best day ever"
*This is a complete lie!
After an hour there was no sign, though a Stone Curlew and a stampede of Red Deer helped ease the tension. A small bird of prey miles away on the horizon tempted us away from the heath and along the access road to Minsmere, roughly the area where the aforementioned bird was. We saw no further sign of it but had a calling Lesser Pecker and a booming Bittern. A kindly birder pulled up alongside me on the way back to the car and informed me of the Kestrel's presence back on the heath!! Ten minutes later we were back by the quarry where after an anxious 10 minute wait it showed distantly but well on and off for the next couple of hours. The crowds at these weekday gatherings are usually a much more pleasant affair and this one was no exception to this, though the poor bloke behind me who called the Kestrel only to be told that it was a Chaffinch must have felt a right tit - but to his credit he enjoyed a laugh along with the rest of us.
Spot the birdy!!
It would have been impolite not to visit nearby Lowestoft, for the couple of Alpine Swifts along the sea front, so we did. The sight of these two desperate creatures clinging to the front of an apartment blog was quite pitiful as they looked pretty knackered and despite a few brief ariel jaunts they were surely getting very little food. With the weather outlook not looking great I fear the worse.
Another one of Suffolk's swifts, this time a Pallid, was just down the road at Kessingland though unlike it's Alpine cousins it was seemingly having more success - choosing to feed over a presumably insect rich sewage works. That is until we arrived where we were greeted by just two Swallows and a White Wag'.
All avenues explored we headed home - "best day ever"
*This is a complete lie!
2 comments:
Very nice summary Mark, since there has been some total shit written about this bird.
Many of the colonial nesting sites in the Algarve have now been abandoned by Lesser Kestrels, but the conservation area created by LPN (League for the Protection of Nature) at an abandoned farm in the Castro Verde area (the LPN have inserted drain-pipes into the walls of the buildings which have now become nest sites for Lesser Kestrel and Roller) has come up trumps; I have seen 40+ birds today.
Cheers Colin. Lesser Kestrels are stunning birds (though admittedly so are male Common Kestrels) and it's good that some effort is being made to preserve their populations. As good as this bird is my fondest memories of this species will always be watching them overhead in Trujillo with a nice cold beer watching the world go by.
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