I was watching this young male kestrel still hunting from a tree in a hedgerow yesterday when a weasel carrying a (bank) vole, scurried across the farm track in front of me heading into a hedgerow bottom. The kestrel dived the 20 metres or so from it's perch toward the weasel forcing it to relinquish it's prey before it had made it to the sanctuary of the hedgerow bottom. The kestrel gratefully retrieved the vole all in one swoop and returned to it's perch to consume the vole.
Not sure if the swoop was to take the weasel or to parasitise the vole, or just a fortunate aside of the former but that's a new one on me, whichever! Perhaps the bird's immaturity and two weeks of sub-zero temperatures and snow covered ground here on the east coast leads to desperate measures and unusual forms of behaviour!
Like I said, it's been a bit chilly (it had been -12, not including wind chill in the morning!)
4 comments:
Fascinating stuff, the cold weather seems to bring out odd behaviour.
As for the temperature and wind chill , I blame those bloody fans or wind turbines as they like to call them
Christ Randall what car are you driving looks like the dashboard of a hillman avenger and you think we live in the dark ages.
Ahhhhh, that explains all the stretch Hillman Avengers full of tattoed orange women that come into the metropolis on the weekend.
Only minus 10 what a softy its colder than that in Ponty.
You'll be getting a sun tan Laddie!
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