Back for Seconds

After my visit to the Red-footed Falcon last Saturday, and posting the visit on my blog, there was something eating away at me about the images I had posted; as I have said on many occasions, I'm no photographer - just a birder with a camera - but I still like to get decent images, so, with this in mind, I decided to return to the site on Thursday. I asked a few mates if they would be available but that word 'work' always seems to get in the way, so 'Billy no Mates' made his way to Chatterley Whitfield Colliery on his own. When I arrived, the bird was perched up in a tree having a good preen, and it sat there for nearly an hour before it decided to start feeding;  it perches quite close on the wires as some people are throwing out locusts for it to feed on.  I'm not quite sure how I feel about this practise - it does bring the bird quite close, so the images below, I hope, are a lot better than the previous attempts.

As always, thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoyed my new and improved images!

Hot foot to the Red-foot

Last Saturday afternoon, the 11th of July, I spent having some family time ending up at an Harvester pub for an early evening meal;  just as we were finishing our meal, my phone started buzzing in my pocket - it was my mate John Waters -he was going to have a look at the first summer Red-footed Falcon that had been found a couple of days earlier, just North of Stoke-on -Trent, and wondered if I would like to go along too. Having not seen one in the UK for probably 15 or so years, (the only other one was a female down in Cambridgeshire,) we arranged to meet at my place at 6.30;  a quick change of clothing for me, and at 6.45pm, we were off for the hour and half drive for the falcon.  I wasn't going to take the camera as the light wouldn't be that good by the time we got there - but I changed my mind at the last minute and picked it up anyway.  90 minutes later, we saw the bird perched on a concrete boundary fence post of the Chatterley Whitfield Colliery. This really smart bird showed very well all the time we were there, although never coming really close. We spent probably a good hour there watching the bird feeding on insects and the odd small frog. The overcast conditions were not ideal for images but I was glad that I had decided to take my camera as I managed to get some record images; they're not brilliant, but give you some idea of this very smart individual.

As I post this blog on July 14th, the bird is still present at the same site.

.........As always, thanks for stopping by!!