Little Visits: The Hunt

It’s been awhile since I posted, and I’ve been hesitant to upload this long set of picture.
It’s not that I can’t edit them down to say just a few, but each carries a different aspect of the story.

So it’s publish, or perish.

+D4, our Ballarat-based granddie invited us up for a weekend, promising all sorts of picture opportunities. And it has to be said—delivering.

Toward the end of the day, he took us to a new housing estate area to look at a pair of nesting Black-shouldered Kites, and as we needed to be back in time for a meal were making our way through the partially built houses, when EE exclaimed, “Kestrel”. And there she was sitting on a street lamp, hunting for small insects, spiders and crickets among the grasses between the houses.

The late evening light broke through the clouds and the bird, which had been working the area while the tradies had been busy all day, was not fussed by a couple of photographers getting in the way.

Time just rolled away, as did the images on to the memory cards. I lost count of the strikes, but each one was short glide from security fence, street light, or dumper bin, into the grass.

There are a lot of shots here, and I partly apologise, but if I cut it down to just the stars of the show, then the magic of the moment would be lost.

A series of take-off 1 of 4
A series of take-off 2 of 4
A series of take-off 3 of 4
A series of take-off 4 of 4
My fav take-off sequence. Amazing to see that her head remained fixed on the landing spot. 1 of 5
My fav take-off sequence. Amazing to see that her head remained fixed on the landing spot. 2 of 5
My fav take-off sequence. Amazing to see that her head remained fixed on the landing spot. 3 of 5
My fav take-off sequence. Amazing to see that her head remained fixed on the landing spot. 4 of 5
My fav take-off sequence. Amazing to see that her head remained fixed on the landing spot. 5 of 5
She was happy to pounce quite close to where I was standing I had to move back to get minimum focus distance.

Needless to say
Dinner did not seem so exciting

Enjoy