A flying visit

There’s an unexpected visitor for Val during lockdown

- Val Bourne

THE strangest thing happened during lockdown – a female kestrel began to hover above the fields right next to Spring Cottage. She appeared regularly and began to hunt, occasionally swooping. We have seen kestrels before, but we’re more likely to see red kites, buzzards, ravens, and sparrowhawks near our garden. The raven's nest in woods nearby, croaking as they fly overhead. The red kites have slowly migrated up the A40 from the Stokenchurch area following their reintroduction in the 1980s. We saw our first red kite over the garden about ten years ago. Now we hardly blink when we see one!

Sparrowhawks pick off birds in the garden, mostly in hard weather, and we’ve always had buzzards wheeling overhead. I’m sure we once had a goshawk on an old ash tree, just beyond the garden, because this large bird of prey had a barred grey-and-white breast. We know they nest on the Sherborne Estate, about three miles away because they were filmed on BBC TV’s Springwatch two or three years ago. I can also count a hobby in my tally, for this swift-shaped bird of prey once flew high above the garden on a late- September day – heading west.