Other morning was quite a mixed bag in terms of weather conditions. I had black clouds, rain, hail and blazing sunshine. Exposures started at 1/250 ISO 4000 and got as good as 1/750 ISO 125.
Anyway it was an interesting session.
Arrived just as male returned to the nest with another pheasant chick. Almost as big as one of the chicks
Kestrel 2020-122 by tblake2007, on Flickr
Just left it in the nest, good view of all 5 chicks
Kestrel 2020-126 by tblake2007, on Flickr
Then the female turned up with vole (?) which she removed a lot of the fur from
Kestrel 2020-127 by tblake2007, on Flickr
She fed the chicks with this and then picked up the pheasant chick and proceeded to remove all the feathers
Kestrel 2020-128 by tblake2007, on Flickr
Kestrel 2020-130 by tblake2007, on Flickr
It looked a bit different by the time she returned to nest with it.
Kestrel 2020-132 by tblake2007, on Flickr
Whilst she was feeding this to the chicks the male turned up with another vole
Kestrel 2020-135 by tblake2007, on Flickr
This all happened in the space of about 20 minutes. If the adults can find prey this easily there is a good chance all 5 chicks will survive.
Last picture shows, probably the oldest chick, with some feathers already starting to develop
Kestrel 2020-134 by tblake2007, on Flickr
Anyway it was an interesting session.
Arrived just as male returned to the nest with another pheasant chick. Almost as big as one of the chicks
Kestrel 2020-122 by tblake2007, on Flickr
Just left it in the nest, good view of all 5 chicks
Kestrel 2020-126 by tblake2007, on Flickr
Then the female turned up with vole (?) which she removed a lot of the fur from
Kestrel 2020-127 by tblake2007, on Flickr
She fed the chicks with this and then picked up the pheasant chick and proceeded to remove all the feathers
Kestrel 2020-128 by tblake2007, on Flickr
Kestrel 2020-130 by tblake2007, on Flickr
It looked a bit different by the time she returned to nest with it.
Kestrel 2020-132 by tblake2007, on Flickr
Whilst she was feeding this to the chicks the male turned up with another vole
Kestrel 2020-135 by tblake2007, on Flickr
This all happened in the space of about 20 minutes. If the adults can find prey this easily there is a good chance all 5 chicks will survive.
Last picture shows, probably the oldest chick, with some feathers already starting to develop
Kestrel 2020-134 by tblake2007, on Flickr
Comment