Two red kites and a kestrel
That's funny - tonight I saw a kite with 2 kestrels. I was pretty thrilled. About the kestrels that is - I see more kites than squirrels round here. I do love the kites; it's just that they're never a surprise any more!
Of course kestrels are harder to spot. I know that traditionally they hover - I've mainly seen them before hovering over the M40 (Betjeman poem?).
The first of tonight's was on a footpath sign about 6' away - I was too dozy to see him until he took flight. He was quickly joined by another (mate?), and they zipped around the fields until alighting on the nearby pylon.
I saw a 3rd shortly after. Didn't seem to be "with" the other two. All this was on the track that runs round the outside of the secure site where I work. I've only been along it twice in 5 years, so I must look again.
WOL Update: since Jan 7th I've seen the local barn owl roughly weekly, and 2 others within a 10-mile radius, also near the Thames. Spoke to a photographer who thinks they extend/move their feeding ground during stuff like flooding. I'm hoping ours will hang around, as I saw him this morning and the ground is really dry now.
Also saw a hare this morning, that's fairly rare for me. The local fauna is a real tonic currently, against the general grimness. That and the amazing weather of course, but that can't last!
