Little Peregrines

On Tuesday I got a chance to visit a wood in Kent, it’s a fabulous place, it’s private and rented by my Uncle and Cousin.
There’s all sorts of wildlife in there, I myself have seen Goshawk here, Common Buzzards are plentiful and my Aunt showed me a photo taken on a nocturnal snapshot camera, a Wild Boar no less.

It’s a fairly large Wood, adjoining a large Forest, having somewhere like this to yourself is a million miles away from my local Country Park and its shouting dog owners looking for lost dogs and dogs barking constantly.
At this time of year with some bird song, the peace and quiet is absolute in the wood, occasionally broken by a calling Fox or even a Deer.

Not surprisingly it is full of wildlife, Goldcrests and Coal Tits are plentiful, however my visit was due to a pair of Hobbies, juveniles and adults had been seen and not surprisingly heard.

Arriving with my uncle Steve around 7.00am the juveniles were soon heard and located, like most birds of prey the hunger call is universal and carries a long way.
I went off on my own tracking their movements by their calls, fledged and out of the nest I soon realised they were very mobile, lots of interacting as per peregrines juveniles, and seemingly due to the early hour, full of the joys of flight and practicing on each other.

I was never going to get really close as they moved around the tall Firs (they favoured these more so than broad leafs) but in the end I couldn’t complain with the shots that I got.

Adult bringing in likely Migrant Hawker

Juvenile about to feed before.....

I worked out that there were 2 juveniles, I would suspect male and female and in watching the family most of the morning, it looked like prey was Migrant Hawkers most of the time going on size.

2nd juvenile arrives also trying for Dragonfly

Sibling rivalry

As the day grew warmer and the unseen thermals developed out came the Common Buzzards, 8 in total, all very high but all Commons, I was hoping for a Honey having seen one here 2 years ago.

Possibly female left and male right juveniles

The last sight I got of the 2 juveniles Hobbies was way up, totally engrossed in each other tail chasing.

A very fitting end to the morning, next month they will likely be in Africa.