From Avalus, and dedicated to our own lovely kestrel.
©Avalus, all rights reserved.
This one was pretty special to me and so there are quite a lot of photos!
I was driving to work and I saw this kestrel (At least, I hope this bird is a kestrel xD) trying to land in low bushes and failing. So I figured it was a young bird.
Then it noticed me and got a bit of distance, flying around me at about 20 m for a few minutes before retreating to the top a lamppost next to me. From there it eyed me with some suspicion but eventually I was allowed to come near enough for some close ups (from about 5m away).
Then, it took off again, squaking and chirping at a cat. And another two kestrels joined the fray. The cat was not impressed. I was trying to get some video-shots but with me half-sitting on my bike, a pretty strong wind and the nice camouflage of the bird, I did not get good footage.
But I had a good feeling for the rest of the day, kestrels are really elegant birds!
©Avalus, all rights reserved.
©Avalus, all rights reserved.
©Avalus, all rights reserved.
©Avalus, all rights reserved.
©Avalus, all rights reserved.
©Avalus, all rights reserved.
©Avalus, all rights reserved.
©Avalus, all rights reserved.
Kestrel always brightens my day 😜
Lovely pics.
The kestrels at my local hill have got so used to me and others flying with them that I can get practically close enough to touch them as they hover. It’s amazing.
Kestrels are damn near impossible to photograph, hat off for these pretty pictures.
Oh squee! These are wonderful photos! I so admire these birds. I love seeing them apparently floating effortlessly above the fields, intent on spotting any unauthorized rodent activity. (And of course they eat many many insects as well.) Very lovely birds. admire them so much I wish I were named kestrel IRL… :-D
Is was a special event, but this trio of kestrels is going to come up again in the future.
I asked a local bird activist and biologist and they told me that a pair was nesting on the roof of the local students housing this spring/summer and they also had observed two young.
A special catch!
In Finnish kestrel would be tuulihaukka (tuuli = wind, haukka = falcon/hawk). Tuuli Haukka woud be a plausible name for a woman, Tuuli is a fairly common first name, for example, the windsurfer Tuuli Petäjä-Sirén, comic strip artist Tuuli Hypén and drummer Tuuli Hirst-Gee bear this name. The last name Haukka isn’t too rare, but not among the hundred most common.