Birds of Prey....Your Pictures Wanted!

I'm still open to be persuaded otherwise, but my photograph of a Peregrine looks suspiciously like this image, courtesy of RSPB online bird identification.

Black and white tail stripes with white tips. Black cheek bar. Feather colours: black, brown, cream/buff, grey, white.

I was concerned the the shape of the wings in my photos wasn't  angular and sword like, so characteristic of Peregrines. However, I put it down to the bird being immature i.e. juvenile. The RSPB image seems similar to the bird in my photos.

I also thought it odd that it would keep flaring its tail, and open out wing feathers, when it was simply turning wide circles, riding a thermal up. Unless it was a juvenile on one of its early flights, trying to get a hang of this flight thing.

However, I see where you are coming from. Another image from RSPB site with Kestrel is this. With the last, very wide tail bar and white tips. The cheek bar is also there, and I have found out that Kestrels also like to ride thermals. They do look so much a like. I do wish the one I photographed did the Kestrel thing of hovering. Instead, it just rode a thermal 'til it was a dot, then swooped down, cutting fast across the paddock, before turning and flying off east. No hovering.

I think Kestrel too!

Nice sequence of photos Angus. I watch a Peregrine falcon nest in Orange, Australia. Well I did last year and am looking forward to watching them again this year. Great characters! Thanks for sharing

Sparrowhawk ??

Yes, we don't see them vey often in the garden. I think that is just the 2nd one this year. It was having it's breakfast when I opened the curtain :)

Thanks all for correctly identifying Kestrel. My reputation for being unable to recognise birds is intact - though I am learning. I've edited my post to correct the mistake.

Uh ho, it's Angus again. Never let him take part in an identification parade. Whilst stomping around the Manor farm restoration this morning, cursing the lack of light, I spied what I thought was a couple of plucky Lapwings mobbing a Buzzard. Got home, squinted at photos on Laptop, and decided: That ain't no Buzzard and that ain't no Lapwing.

Well yes there were Lapwing giving a bird of prey some stick, but there was also another bird of prey involved in the fracas; either directly or indirectly.

As usual, the birds were a fair distance off, and we open the action with this shot and my lens at a peculiar 562mm, instead of 600mm. Now, I originally thought that the higher of the two birds was a Buzzard, and the lower of the two a Lapwing. Hmmm, not so on laptop.

Aggressive cropping, etc, of the top bird reveals this. My recent foray into bird mis-identification has now taught me that this is a Kestrel.

Cropping out the lower of the birds, which I thought was a Lapwing, reveals this mystery bird.

The next photo I manage was this. The lower bird is definitely a Lapwing, which is what I saw and heard. Though I was still convinced higher bird was a Buzzard. I briefly thought Red Kite, but birds on the reserves normally leave them alone.

Next photo reveals another mystery bird.

Is this mystery bird the Kestrel in an earlier photo? It doesn't look like a Lapwing to me. 

And did the mystery bird mob the lower bird or did it just happen to photobomb my images?

I think that the lower bird - the mobee - is a Marsh Harrier. There is at least one on the Manor farm restoration.  Cropping the bird out gives this dramatic evasive job.

Today would have been ideal to have received bright, wall to wall sunshine. As it is, you have to put up with dull, fuzzy images, cropped out and processed as best I can.  

The Lapwing mobbing was quite definite. I note how the 'Marsh' Harrier had its undercarriage down as a Lapwing approached. It would flip on its back to ward off the attacking Lapwing.

Cropping out for a close look.

The Lapwings broke off their attack shortly after the above photograph. The 'Marsh' harrier was sufficiently far away to be deemed of no threat. The harrier itself continued to circle on a thermal, going slightly higher but mainly further north. I managed a few more photos, but the bird must have been about a 1/4 of a mile away. No much point continuing, especially in the low light.

Right, boys and girls, did I correctly identify the birds?

The black & white one is a Penguin Angus ...

Hope you enjoyed your trip out despite the grey skies

Hah! You don't fool me that easily, BD. I looked up Penguin in my Observer book of world birds, version 1.

Penguin: order Sphenisciformes of the family Spheniscidae
Originates: South of equator
Defining features: Flightless

What clinched it for me was report of latest whereabouts: Penguin, currently incarcerated in Cell 204, block C, High security wing, Gotham state penitentiary, U.S.A

Edited: I think I need a course of therapy. I realised that I put this posting in completely the wrong thread. Sigh. Perhaps a frontal lobotomy will help? Rather than mess up the whole thread by deleting this posting, I thought I'd better leave it, especially as BD liked it. I think a lie down and long rest in a cool, dark, quiet room is called for.

Part of our early morning constitutional takes us along the edge of a small car park. At one end of said car park, just before we go through a gate to a small field, are a line of Cherry plum trees. This year, the Cherry plum trees have had a mast year, producing an abundance of fruit; unlike the past four or five years, where they have failed repeatedly.

This Jay allowed us to pass within 20 feet of it (though it did freeze) and then actually allowed me to whip up my compact digital camera and take a couple of photos.

Here it is frozen, thinking 'Ain't no Jay in this tree. I'm just a deformed Cherry plum'.

Look what I got!

It flew off to enjoy its plunder in a safe, private place.