I had another failed attempt of catching a bird in flight. I was on the return leg of a dog walk, on the path alongside the quarry edge, when I noticed a bird of prey swooping around, sometimes above me, sometimes below, but always quite close. I wondered whether it was a peregrine falcon – we have a pair of these nesting on the quarry “cliff face”, but my attempts to photograph it in flight were unsuccessful. It seems no matter how quick I was, the bird was quicker, and was just out of frame when I pressed the shutter. Even with multi-shot I never quite captured the subject, and so I gave up, and instead took a photo of Croft Church on the far side of the quarry – not quite as precariously on the edge as it seems in this image. When I down-loaded the picture, lo and behold, there was the peregrine falcon swooping off to the left in enough detail for me to identify it as a kestrel. I have yet to capture either of the peregrines.
I love peregrines. I think we have one that lives around us. I caught it in flight recently, but it was really high up and not much more than a speck. Great capture.
Funny how a close up shot of our local quarry can look so different to the whole view as seen without the camera! Love this shot! The Kestrel is a bonus!
