Kestrel

6 February 2014

Emley, West Yorkshire

3 p.m.; A kestrel sits hunched on a power line, its attention focussed on the rough verge below; an easier option for vole-hunting than hovering.

We've seen more kestrels than sparrowhawks recently; one hovering in what used to be classic kestrel habitat over a small wedge of rough grassy embankment by the motorway and another two, on separate occasions, over pasture. I remember when it was a possibility to count several kestrels along a few junctions of the motorway but rough verges grow up and become scrub and scrub then becomes woodland so there probably isn't as much suitable hunting territory as there used to be.

Jay

Further along the lane, after seeing the kestrel, we glimpse a jay, just where we'd seen it - seen one I should say - on Monday afternoon, by, as you'd expect, two large hedgerow oaks.

A bright morning and sadly we have another siskin hit the patio windows, this time it's a brightly coloured male.

Winter jasmine, Jasminum nudiflorum, which has been in flower for a month or more in local gardens, is a native of China.