A new joint study by RMIT and the University of Bristol has revealed secrets to the remarkably steady flight of kestrels and could inform future drone designs and flight control strategies. The study, “Steady as they hover: kinematics of kestrel wing and tail morphing during hovering flights,” was published in the Journal of Experimental Biology. […]
Tag: Kestrel
Winter birding – Haradh
Phil Roberts and I went for our normal winter birding trip to Haradh recently and saw a lot of good birds. Best was 14 Sociable Lapwings which I have already posted about but we also saw a number of other good winter visitors and early spring migrants. The first pivot field we stopped at had […]
A week in the forest of Dean
Just back from a week away in the Forest of Dean with my grandson with limited birding opportunities as the week was geared around ensuring he had a good time. I added a few year ticks with Ravens in the garden of our cottage and I twitched the Yellow-browed Warbler a couple of miles from […]
Barn Owls at Christmas
I began the year with an account of a barn owl. I am finishing the year with another account of barn owls. The weather so far in December has been awful with rain on most days and very dull conditions. Hardly conducive to good photography but there have been a couple of days when conditions […]
Great visit to Wallasea Island
Sometimes a days birding can deliver very little and then sometimes days like today come along where it all seems to go right. A Barn Owl as we pulled into the track to the reserve followed by two Short-eared Owls hunting at first light then a male Merlin flashes across us and sits out on […]
Hedmark Guiding Highlights
So, the last 2 days I have been guiding a group of Chinese bird photographers. It has been fun but was definitely a new experience for me. We visited Østensjøvannet yesterday where we had lots of photogenic birds and then the magical forests of Hedmark today where there were fewer birds but they were most […]
Summer time birding – Tanoumah
Last summer I visited Tanoumah, and have just sorted out my photos from the trip. Below are a few species I managed to see and photograph including Abyssinian White-eye, Brown-necked Raven, Common Kestrel, Crested Lark, Little Rock Thrush, Tristrams Starling and Violet-backed Starling. I also saw a few Arabian endemics including Arabian Serin, Arabian Wheatear, […]
Winter visitors – Jubail
Whilst birding Jubail recently I have come across a number of winter visitors to the region. Common Kestrel is an uncommon passage migrant but numbers build up in the winter months when they can be seen in various locations. Isabelline Wheatear numbers also increase as winter wears on and they can be seen along the […]