Kestral hunting close up.

[wildherbalian85]

I was cycling just up from the ferry port in Portsmouth earlier when i had a very lucky thing happen.

The scene: a path running parallel to the main road on one side and a small grassy patch to the other, the grassy patch has a few hedges on the other side, and there are 2 small tree's in the middle of the patch.

As i was cycling to my side a spotted a small brown bird in the corner of my eye flying shoulder hight along the grass parallel to me at around 2 - 2.5 meters, i turned and instantly recognized it as a kestrel... i then witnessed it dive with talons out into the edge where the hedge and grass meet. It took off (almost clipping me as it flew in front of me) and circled back to the to one of the trees. It then sat there watching the hedge and occasionally glancing at me.

I will add there are a lot of rats in this stretch of hedging and they are quite often seen even in the middle of the afternoon so my guess is the kestral had rat dinner on its mind.

[wildherbalian85]

Is it me or are the Kestrels in urban and semi urban areas less timid??

Todays close up sighting is not a first, last year whilst stood at a local train station a kestrel flew past only feet above my head and then hovered on the adjacent playing feild... it was only a few meters from me when doing this and seemed not in the least bit bothered about my presence.