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Thursday, 12 January 2012

The Food Fight - on 8th January, 2012

In my last post, I mentioned a scrap between a Short-eared Owl and a Kestrel. It seems that the Kestrel (a female) took exception to the SEO hunting during the daylight hours, and when the SEO caught a vole, the Kestrel tried to claim it for itself. The ensuing dogfight was fascinating to observe and ended up with both birds (and the vole, which was in free fall!) plunging towards the earth. All, except the vole, pulled out at the last moment! Unfortunately the action was at a distance of approximately 300 metres from me so the images are pretty poor, but they do illustrate the story.





Short-eared Owl and Kestrel (female) - near Ashby de la Zouch
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10 comments:

  1. Stevie Evans13 January 2012 at 08:24

    Great sequence
    Why bother catching a meal when you can mug someone & take theirs....

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  2. Richard Pegler13 January 2012 at 08:38

    Hi Stevie. Good to hear from you. In the early days of the SEOs being here it was the crows that were causing most of the aggro. This situation with the Kestrel seems to have been a recent development, and I've seen it twice more since taking these photos a few days ago!

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  3. Paul Riddle13 January 2012 at 09:31

    Great set Richard, brilliant detail considering the distance involved.

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  4. Richard Pegler13 January 2012 at 09:48

    Thank you Paul. Haven't seen anything from you for a while, so I guess you're still busy elsewhere!

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  5. Linda Yarrow13 January 2012 at 23:09

    Fantastic to see this let alone capture it on camera, well done:)

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  6. Richard Pegler14 January 2012 at 08:55

    Thank you Linda. Saw it again yesterday afternoon - also a scrap with a Lesser Black-backed Gull - so maybe another post on this soon!

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  7. Millhouse Photography14 January 2012 at 13:19

    Hi Richard - fantastic action images! I'd love to get some like this - it's a dream sequence - the kestrel and the owl. Very enjoyable to view.

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  8. Richard Pegler14 January 2012 at 16:53

    Thank you Christian. I'd happily swap my SEO/Kestrel scrap for your Barn Owl opportunity !!

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  9. Unknown16 January 2012 at 11:54

    Fabulous story Richard and great shot of them heading for the ground with the vole seemingly waiting to be picked off by the kestrel!

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  10. Richard Pegler16 January 2012 at 12:02

    Thank you Phil. I suspect that I'll be seeing more of this sort of scrap whilst the owls stay with us, as I can sometimes see three Kestrels hunting simultaneously, and the aggression towards the owls seems to be increasing.

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