Common Cuckoo Montage

This take-off montage is a post production combination taken from the original files of the three cropped images posted below.

It has been generated to be able to appreciate at leisure, movement of the bird within the period of one second during which time ten registered images were taken and in this example shots 1, 4, and 8 were selected for the final montage.

The additional three Cuckoo portraits posted below were of individual birds, Two male and one female seen out and about on the downs yesterday.

 All were very active and covering a large area on a continuous basis which tended to produce quite long periods of inactivity,  So good patients are the name of the game !

The images posted here are the result working at a single location and learning the habits and favoured perch points of the visiting birds on a 5 AM to 2 PM shoot in good conditions yesterday

The females bubbling call was extremely loud and very shrill !

Hovering to Hunt

There is a lead-up behaviour story relating to this kestrel that might be of interest to readers in the previous Blog, It relates to a series of events preceding the start of its hunting sequence posted below,

I have been working with this female Kestrel on and off for the last seven years and watched her raise twenty four fledglings,  Yesterday was my first sighting of her since last July last year and she treated me to some really close hovers as she hunted an entire rough grass field for voles over a thirty minute period, Light levels were still low but from behind me and the bird was quite close through much of its hunting period,

She stopped briefly after twenty minutes resting on a favoured boundary wall post then returned to the hunt until she found her prey a few minutes later in a tangled mass of hedgerow,  She then immediately took flight heading towards her roost with the vole classically hanging from one set of talons in what always looks like a casual manner,

I intend to follow this incredible bird throughout its breeding season again this year but any blogs relating to it will with the reasons why be published at a later date.