Falco subbuteo
May 19, 2001: Lee Valley Regional Park, Hartfordshire, England
When we arrived at the park, we ran into a local birder who told us that there were several of these birds present in the park, so during our walk I’d kept an eye out for them. We were almost back at the carpark before we spotted them: a total of three birds. For the most part they were flying a bit farther away than would allow us a good look, but one of them flew fairly low overhead once, and then passed by again on its way back from where it had come. The lighting was terrible – overcast and grey – so the bird was backlit without enough sun to show us the red that’s supposed to be on the lower underparts. But the bird had distinctive facial markings with a lot of white on the face and was heavily streaked on the breast with dark markings in contrast with light ones. It wasn’t a kestrel, so the only thing it could have reasonably been was a hobby.
Let me know what you think!