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!!