A Green Day

The dull weather continued and the weather forecast gave no hope of an improvement. The birds don't mind dull weather but it does make it less easy to see and photograph anything interesting

I started the day with a walk round the Paddock, and there, just for Norma, was a Green Woodpecker feeding on the grass. I would have got closer, but unfortunately it was disturbed by a dog. Overall there seemed to be fewer of most things about and there was no sign of any substantial migration.

As I returned to the car the "big" Falcon appeared overhead and cruised around just above me. It is still showing a short piece of one of its jesses which makes it easy to ID.

Shortly afterwards two Peregrines appeared. The female seemed to me content to watch the action from higher up.

The male, on the other hand wasn't pleased to see the visitor and lined it up for an aggressive dive.

When it dived I did manage to get it in the view finder for a while but when it approached its target it got difficult to keep it sharp.

It all happened pretty quickly so the image is not too good, but you can see that the "big" falcon had rolled over and is talons up to defend itself. At this point the sky began to brighten and seemed to promise some better weather for a couple of hours. The lure of my third green of the day (Woodpecker, Pere, and now Heron) was to much and I popped along to West Hythe.

Inevitably by the time I got there the bright patch had passed and the Green Heron had moved a few hundred yards along the canal and was not being very cooperative. Ray Turley was there, getting some more video, and fortunately he seen when it had disappeared into the undergrowth overhaving the water.

It wasn't long before it came out, but as it had eaten a big fish just before I arrived, it wasn't very actively fishing. It continued to vanish and then reappear a little further along the bank, and fortunately when a good perch was there it was considerate enough to use it.

It did catch one small fish, but this was when it was half hidden under a bush. It seems pretty settled and I wouldn't be surprised if it was around for a while, providing the big pike that's lurking doesn't have it for lunch.