birdpix

It was strange to see a couple of Swallows over the river Meden ,then a few haundred yards later in sunny Pleasley to see some redwings.The temperature first thing in the morning  definately felt Autumna,its only a small village but its a twenty minute walk to Pleasley hill.Pleasley Hill hopefully will be demolished soon-they could put something useful ints place.The usual grey wagtail was by the dam ,no sign of the dipper...Highlight of this RSPB local group trip to Spurn point for me at least was the Kestrels.Yes we did  get a not very good view of  an Arctic Skua out at sea and a distant Hobby,some Whimbrel,and the usual assortment of waders,the Kestrels I could have watched all day.A female in hovering mode ,swooped ,went for and got a weazel,which she scooped up in her talons and flew off with the wriggling, writhing & protesting weazel.I watched this drama unfold wondering if she could handle prey that large.The weazel somehow wriggled free of her grip and dropped about eight foot in the air,promptly running into a bush and hiding.A few seconds later and the kestrel was hovering over the same spot again ,almost unbelievably the weazel emerged from the bush to run past again ,did a u turn and ran instead in the opposite direction ,clearly in a state of distressbut other wise unharmed?A little later in another spot ,I watched a male kestrel this time hunting ,he saw a vole ,dived ,swooped and scooped .Successfully apparently as he flew into some cover to polish off the unfortunate vole .I love watching these birds (see a previous Carr Vale blog for my picture of a Kestrel with a vole hanging out of his chops) .There were good numbers of Admirals about still ,it was nice to see them feeding on some windfall apples ,hopefully they were getting  a buzz from the fermenting fruit.Im not going to mention the snow buntings that we walked about twelfty miles to not see,never mind we got great views of snobs earlier in the year.Im not mentioning either the hawfinch or the lapland bunting that were similarly invisible.Good to see so many tree sparrows .Last time we did Spurn a guy came running up to me shouting have you seen it? What the wryneck? I asked him ,no the honey buzzard (therewas a tiny speck in the sky that we never counted).Spurn is always good.