Tag Archives: cloudless

Kestrel in a clear blue sky

I love to visit Badbury Rings. Today was a chill 4 degrees. The sky was cloudless. The sun was low even though it was close to noon, casting long shadows. The kestrel landed in a tree, but I was on the wrong side. The bird was silhouetted against the sun. I carefully changed position, hoping not to spook it. It was a male bird, slightly smaller than the female, but slightly more colourful. I was rewarded with a series of photos with the sun illuminating the glorious colours: chestnut brown, grey, black and yellow.

Suddenly, the kestrel launched itself out of the tree into the open sky.

The low sun lit up the side of the kestrel including parts of the outstreched underparts of the wings. Its ferocious yellow talons were clearly visible. It swept slowly over the farmland, stopping periodicaly to hover over a particular patch.

Is this a chickadee?

Blue tit enjoying sunshine after Storm Christoph

“It rained and it rained and it rained. Piglet told himself that never in all his life, and he was goodness knows how old – three was it, or four? – never had he seen so much rain.”

Winnie-The-Pooh, A.A.Milne, Chapter 9 …in which Piglet is entirely surrounded by water

Storm Christoph wasn’t too bad for us personally, although there were heartbreaking pictures on the news of its impact in other parts of the country.

But today the rain stopped and the sun came out. The birds returned to the feeders.

The Blue tits visited and sang whilst performing their acrobatics. I think I prefer US name Chickadee to the UK Tit, even though it probably would only apply to our Willow tit or Marsh tit. It’s so much more genteel.

Anyway, here is a Blue tit in our garden enjoying the sun.