I received a call from Paul a local dog walker early Saturday morning, who told me he was sure he'd seen a Red-footed Falcon on the ranges at The Wicks while walking his dogs along the green wall. My heart sank a little as I thought about the assault course necessary to access the green wall.
Climb over concrete wall then clamber across the rocks to access the green wall, then a near 2 mile walk to The Wicks all while carrying £1,000s of optical equipment. (Excellent image by O Leyshon)
1st summer male Red-footed Falcon at The Wicks late Saturday evening 13/06/2020, the identification is obvious in this image but in the extreme heat haze we were convinced it was an adult female.(Image courtesy of Graham Parry)
I made the effort Saturday morning and failed abysmally to locate the bird, deciding I'd come back in the evening when it was cooler and hopefully less heat haze over the shingle. Saturday evening I made the walk out there again with Colin and Graham and later joined by Owen. The viewing conditions were no better than in the morning but eventually I spotted a shape on a shingle mound around 500 mts out on the ranges. The telescope seemed to just magnify the heat haze, but we were able to ascertain that the shape was a bird with what looked like a buff coloured head and a dark silvery back, we stared intently at it for what seemed an age hoping it would turn round or even better fly closer to us. We then made the mistake of all looking away together for a few seconds, in which time the bird had flown. We eventually relocated it even further away where it made short flights, always landing into the wind with its back to us. Eventually with light rapidly falling we left, as none of us wanted to tackle the assault course in the dark, but we were happy we had seen an adult female Red-footed Falcon.
Sunday morning I went back to The Wicks with CT. GP & DS were already on site and had already seen the bird quite well but it had now flown along way out onto the ranges. Around midday SM found a 1st summer male Red-footed Falcon at Dengemarsh, I was back home but my phone was on silent so I was late getting the messages about the bird. I eventually arrived on site and after a while saw and got some poor images of the bird, cursing the fact that I'd sent my Canon 1DX MK11 off for a much needed service. When I met GP he showed me back of the camera images he'd taken that morning of The Midrips bird, which was very obviously a 1st summer male. Later he sent me images of bird at The Wicks as well and it became clear that it was the same bird at Dengemarsh.
1st Summer male Red-footed Falcon at The Midrips early Sunday 14/06/2020
(Image courtesy of Graham Parry)
(Image courtesy of Graham Parry)
1st Summer male Red-footed Falcon at The Midrips early Sunday 14/06/2020
(Image courtesy of Graham Parry)
(Image courtesy of Graham Parry)
1st Summer male Red-footed Falcon at The Midrips early Sunday morning 14/06/2020. The damaged primary on the left wing is just about visible. The damage is more visible on 2 of the images below, these were taken at Dengemarsh Sunday afternoon 14/06/2020
There were plenty of Hobbys around Dengemarsh this weekend
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