If you scan back in my blog, you will find I’ve been trying to take some images of kestrels in my local area (Hampshire).  Unfortunately this has been a difficult gig for the reasons I’ve related in those posts. Consequently, I haven’t been wholly happy with the results so far.  

Last weekend, we took a short break to visit Guernsey (one of the Channel Islands in the English Channel) for a bit of general relaxation.  Of course the camera goes too; just in case.  While out on Friday just working our way around the island and seeing what’s what, we stopped for a bit for a short walk at a popular site.  Almost immediately I saw a kestrel fly out and land on the foreshore on some large pebbles.  It then began hunting along the shoreline quite near us before flying some way off and landing at, what I instantly realised looked like a perfect a nest site (unfortunately, clearly on private land).  Well, that was it!  I was immediately hooked.  After watching and photographing for some time it became apparent that there was a pair with a fledged youngster who was noisy and demanding.  

It was only a short weekend trip but I managed a couple more lengthy visits very early in the morning and late afternoon and came away with some fascinating sightings and with limited number but my best images of kestrels to date.  It would have been great to have seen the story develop over a longer period but this was just a snatched interlude on the other side of the English Channel.  

I’ve added a new gallery, with a couple of sequences, in the ‘Air’ section of the site or find it  here.