After a birder had been driving along the lane to Fraisthorpe Beach in Yorkshire on Tuesday morning, he noted a Kestrel species sat close by in a small tree. He took some photos of the Kestrel and later showed them to a birding friend who told him This bird has got pale claws, it could be a Lesser Kestrel After a few more opinions were shared about the photographs, a decision was made to put the news out to the various birding websites at around 8pm. Wednesday morning dawned and it wasnt until 11-30am that the putative Lesser Kestrel was again seen. So with John R at the wheel and myself and Kevin C we made our way to Fraisthorpe on a bright, sunny but cool day. Lots of other birders were present and it wasn`t long before the putative Lesser Kestrel (sorry for having to keep saying putative, it means generally considered to be) was seen. I am certainly no expert on birds of prey plumage but this bird had a different jizz to any other Common Kestrel that I have ever seen. If any of you out there have got time to spare, have a read about the bird at Birdforum or better still read this article from renowned bird of prey expert Jack Ashton-Booth :
I have no doubt that the debate about the bird will rumble on and on until the men in high places have to make a decision about the birds identity. But due to the amount of birders present to see it there had to be some credence to this interesting record. My last point is that people that dont go to see this type of tricky to identify species shouldn`t really just sit at home and make judgements upon birds after looking at pictures (think about that) Good day out no matter what the outcome might be. Once again Kevin C thanks for the Flapjack.
Later that evening news of every British birdwatchers dream bird began to circulate in the form of a Siberian Rubythroat in Radlett, Hertfordshire. That certainly got a few birders pulses racing along. We made plans to go to see it, if it recovered from its ordeal of having been caught by a cat! But the news came later that the bird was an escape due to finding that the birds wings had been clipped. It did seem a little farfetched about the whole thing, but you should always check things like this out.
