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Birds, Insects & Bats in flight (outdoors) Page 31
Image Taken on 14 Dec 2020
at 09:35 Image of day on 17 Jan 2021
A bit more detail of the hovering Kestrel.
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Ref: 20210117_d73_20201214_0935_072 kestrel female hovering in gusty wind 10 of 12 (crop)(r+mb id@768).jpg
Image Taken on 14 Dec 2020
at 09:35 Image of day on 17 Jan 2021
Here hovering in a blustery wind you can see that the female Kestrel's beak tip
is motionless against the distant tree despite the movements of her wings and body.
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Ref: 20210117_d73_20201214_0935_066-073 kestrel female hovering in gusty wind maintaining head position 04+06+07+11 of 12 (montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg
Image Taken on 16 Oct 2023
at 13:18 Image of day on 30 Nov 2023
One of the more interesting moments in one of the Kestrel's hovers.
Kestrels always face into the wind when they hover and apparently can not
hover in still air. A well established common name is the 'Windhover'.
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Ref: 20231130_df3_20231016_1318_068 kestrel female hovering in strong wind(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 22 Sep 2022
at 12:42 Image of day on 31 Oct 2022
More usually Kestrels around here hunt from perches on the numerous cables and
their support posts. But with a decent wind this one follows the traditional
behaviour for a 'Windhover' of hanging staggeringly stationary head-on into the
breeze using judicious wing flaps and manoeuvring her various flight feathers
and tail. She suddenly dived down behind a hedge and, for us, disappeared.
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Ref: 20221031_df3_20220922_1242_016+014+017+019+023 kestrel female hovering in strong wind (montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg
Image Taken on 25 Feb 2016
at 12:43 Image of day on 29 Mar 2016
After spending a few minutes hunting from a Black Poplar by the roadside this
female Kestrel was hovering to our east facing into biting north wind.
 (montage impression)(r+mb id@576).jpg)
Ref: 20160329_df3_20160225_1243_034+051+064 kestrel female hovering in strong wind (selected) (montage impression)(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 14 Dec 2019
at 11:08 Image of day on 18 Jan 2020
Next day we watched her hunting over the farm crop. She took up a series of
hover positions, as always facing into the wind, but the wind was so strong that
she hardly ever flapped her wings, keeping station by endless adjustments of the
wing angles, tail position and the Alulae (the wing's 'thumbs'). Wonderful to
watch such accomplished flight.
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Ref: 20200118_df3_20191214_1108_100+104+106 kestrel female hovering in strong wind without flapping wings 1+5+7 of 7 (offset montage)(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 21 Nov 2021
at 10:45 Image of day on 28 Dec 2021
The new Female Kestrel doesn't provide any opportunities for hand-held portraits,
but she hunts while hovering much more than 'Grey Feather', so here is one
of her near the Bridleway to the north, hovering in front of an 11kV cable.
The hover starts at the top and this sequence, with a cable a useful
vertical reference, and a tower (cropped out) providing horizontal positioning,
shows how well the Kestrel keeps station.
Here is a general view of about 1.3 seconds of action ...
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Ref: 20211228_d72_20211121_1045_009-019 kestrel female hovering near 11kv cables 01-11 of 11 (montage 1 @8fps)(r+mb id@768).jpg
Image Taken on 21 Nov 2021
at 10:45 Image of day on 28 Dec 2021
... and here more detail of the bird to see the wings and tail in action.
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Ref: 20211228_d72_20211121_1045_009-019 kestrel female hovering near 11kv cables 01-11 of 11 (montage 3 @8fps)(r+mb id@1024).jpg
Image Taken on 08 Oct 2014
at 16:16 Image of day on 16 Dec 2014
Moving between hovers we get a view of the top of this female
kestrel's wings
 05 of 33 (crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg)
Ref: 20141216_df2_20141008_1616_091 kestrel female hovering over meadow looking about & flying off @5fps (selected) 05 of 33 (crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 08 Oct 2014
at 16:16 Image of day on 16 Dec 2014
During one hover this female Kestrel's attention gets taken with something
we had no sight of off to our left.
 20 of 33 (crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg)
Ref: 20141216_df2_20141008_1616_155 kestrel female hovering over meadow looking about & flying off @5fps (selected) 20 of 33 (crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 08 Oct 2014
at 16:16 Image of day on 16 Dec 2014
We spotted this female Kestrel hunting over our meadow and photographed
her through the bars of a security gate - she is intolerant of humans in the open.
The end of her third hover, when she flew off to the South.
 27-31 of 33 (montage)(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
Ref: 20141216_df2_20141008_1616_182-186 kestrel female hovering over meadow looking about & flying off @5fps (selected) 27-31 of 33 (montage)(r+mb id@1024).jpg
Image Taken on 18 Feb 2015
at 10:47 Image of day on 02 Apr 2015
Here we caught her hovering for 2 seconds against a distant
hedge, and we hope you can see just how still the eye is as the
wings, body and tail maneuver around to keep her eyes focussed on
the ground.
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Ref: 20150402_df2_20150218_1047_097+109+111 kestrel female hovering over road eye motionless for 2 seconds @7fps 01+13+15 of 15 (montage)(r+mb id@1024).jpg
Image Taken on 03 Aug 2016
at 16:09 Image of day on 19 Sep 2016
From a hover (always awkward to represent in a montage) at the top right the
female Kestrel suddenly dropped down to gain speed to fly to a new hunting spot.
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Ref: 20160919_df3_20160803_1609_040-048 kestrel female hovering then dropping down to move away 1+3+5+7+9 of 9 (accurate montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg
Image Taken on 15 Aug 2019
at 13:51 Image of day on 03 Oct 2019
This female Kestrel made a sudden appearance, hunting over the recently
harvested fields. While in our view she made about 7 hovers, each of only an
atypically short 3 or 4 seconds, before sweeping across to another hovering
position. Here, vertically stacked top to bottom, is one of the short hovers. As
you can see the bird was unusually active in the blustery wind. These 3 taken in
less than half a second.
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Ref: 20191003_df3_20190815_1351_032+034+035 kestrel female hovers multiple times for a few seconds over harvested field 1-3 of 3 (spread montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg
Image Taken on 04 Mar 2024
at 14:44 Image of day on 31 Mar 2024
In a strong and steady South East wind we enjoyed this Kestrel apparently just
hanging on the wind without a wing flap in sight.
This 1 second of images show the mass of adjustments the bird makes to her wings,
tail, and maybe even claws, to maintain the almost perfectly stationary head.
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Ref: 20240331_df3_20240304_1444_018+021+024+025 kestrel female hovers without flapping into strong steady wind (montage over 1 second)(r+mb id@1024).jpg
Image Taken on 15 Nov 2020
at 10:21 Image of day on 21 Dec 2020
Every week or two the local female kestrel spends a day or two hunting around our patch.
We don't see any regular pattern to where she hunts and preens though she has her
favourite haunts.
This time she is first spotted on the mains cables supplying the house.
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Ref: 20201221_d73_20201115_1021_045 kestrel female hunting from overhead mains cables(r+mb id@576).jpg
Image Taken on 15 Nov 2020
at 10:28 Image of day on 21 Dec 2020
The female Kestrel hasn't moved from the above pic, but the cameraman moved to the
other side of the wire for a less back-lit image.
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Ref: 20201221_d73_20201115_1028_061+1027_055+059 kestrel female hunting from overhead mains cables (montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg
Image Taken on 08 Apr 2020
at 16:18 Image of day on 25 Apr 2020
Next day, the same female Kestrel was again hunting insects in flight.
The dot below the Talons of the top bird is the insect, in a claw by the next frame and being
brought forward to the beak in the bottom image.
We photographed about 5 instances on this day, but could only find a convincing insect in this one.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
Ref: 20200425_d73_20200408_1618_127+129+131 kestrel female hunting insects in flight 1+3+5 of 5 (montage impression)(r+mb id@768).jpg
Image Taken on 28 Nov 2021
at 12:28 Image of day on 03 Jan 2022
We believe that the original human-tolerant female Kestrel is back.
Here she flies quite close to us to land in a tree on the island in
the main pond, where she stopped for a hunt. We were both already
quite close when she landed for a hunt.
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Ref: 20220103_df3_20211128_1228_053 kestrel female in flight(r+mb id@768).jpg
Image Taken on 25 Sep 2020
at 08:52 Image of day on 09 Nov 2020
The female Kestrel flies from the footrest on the disused Telephone pole
low over the ground and out of sight.
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Ref: 20201109_df3_20200925_0852_030 kestrel female in flight(r+mb id@576).jpg
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