Saturday 31 October 2020

Kestrel on Easter Craiglockart Hill

 The weather has been very changeable today. The sun is shining beautifully at the moment but it was windy and rainy while we were walking round Easter Craiglockart Hill this morning. 

The autumn colours were beautiful


We spent a wonderful few minutes watching a kestrel as it hovered around hunting. It's amazing how these birds can stay almost in one spot while the wind roars around them (one of their old names is 'windhover'). This kestrel flew down onto the grass a couple of times, but I couldn't see whether it caught anything. Crafty Green Boyfriend took these photos of the kestrel



Easter Craiglockart Hill is one of many greenspaces in Edinburgh. We're lucky to live in a city with so many areas of natural beauty as COVID-19 restrictions are tightened again and for at least the next two weeks from Monday we won't be allowed to travel outside of Edinburgh (at the moment we're confined to the Lothians). 


6 comments:

eileeninmd said...

Hello,

Great sighting of the Kestrel. It is good to have some safe spot to go for your walks. Take care, enjoy your weekend!

Jenn Jilks said...

I have tried hard to photograph them, but they are too swift for me!

Gershon Ben-Avraham said...

"My heart in hiding / Stirred for a bird, – the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!" [Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Windhover.] Beautiful photos of the kestrel.

RG said...

Was in Bandon, Oregon for a week Beautiful beaches and nice weather,

and Gorse!!!!

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

I like Kestrals ... better now since I don’t keep bird feeders (back in the day we had a “neighborhood” one who loved to visit mine and scare my feeder birds away (if they were lucky). .... lovely walk there. I hope your lockdown works and you are able to resume normal soon (whatever normal is these days). At least you are all in it together. We are so torn apart over here, I don’t know if we will ever get over it.

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Oh and I love learning the name “windhover” which is perfectly descriptive.