Fancied a stroll yesterday and the downs above the ridgeway seemed a good area to check out and see if there was anything of interest. After driving past a couple of sites that seemed more busy than my preferred mode of birding requires which is the pleasure of occasional solitude, arrived just over the border in Berkshire at the nature reserve at Seven Barrows.
Entered by the gate and was met by a flock of Sheep that scrutinised me before carrying on with munching the rather coarse grass that covers the whole reserve area. Walking West I noticed a bird of prey that flew with a somewhat buoyant flight keeping quite low and never rising above the tree line as it circled around the adjoining field, the bright sunlight made identification difficult but because of its size and flight and the downland area, Hen Harrier rang a bell. I quickly retraced my steps and got lucky as the bird went to ground hidden from view by some hedging and the possibility of striking birding gold had the adrenaline pumping.
As I reached the edge of the field and by moving along the perimeter I could just make out a far distant brown blur telling me my piece of gold had probably killed and was now feasting on the unfortunate victim. Lined up my camera and took multiples photos of which as I later downloaded them on my computer found only three of any use to identify it. Drove back home and without checking the photos emailed them to a friend who is so much better than I at bird identification and as I emailed them awful doubts crept in , for a start a moustachial stripe was apparent and a gradual drop in adrenaline was replaced as my mate confirmed my worst fears that I had been watching a Kestrel.
Whether the bright sunlight made the bird look so much bigger than one would expect of a Kestrel and quite why it flew with much slower wingbeats than we usually see with Kestrel I really don't know.
The accompanying photos are the best I could get taking into account both the sunlight and the extreme distance.
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