Red Footed Falcon

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Tim Preston
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I had to drop some family off at Manchester Airport so I thought I would pop in and see if I could spot the now famous Red Footed Falcon on my way back. A quick search of Twitter gave me enough info to get within 100m of it and then a very kind gent pointed the bird out to me. It's the first time I've travelled to see a bird, does this make me a "twitcher"? The weather was dire, overcast and raining... It's a gorgeous little bird though and I am glad I went to have a look. There are now signs up asking for it not to be fed. It was quite happily taking worms from the surface of the grass.

It sat on a fence for about 20 minutes before disappearing high up into a tree. I might try and go back if we have a sunny day over the weekend.


Red Footed Falcon Staffordshire 27.07.2015 (1 of 1)-4
by Tim Preston, on Flickr


Red Footed Falcon Staffordshire 27.07.2015 (1 of 1)-8
by Tim Preston, on Flickr
 
Yes you are officially a Twitcher!. Nice sharp images,pity about its "perch" but out of your control.
Apparently 2 guys have tried to capture it on a number of occasions and on Rare bird alert ,a "twitchers" web based service,it has asked people to keep their eye out for suspicious activity to be reported to the police. :shifty:
Unscrupulous photographers have also been seen to feed crickets and locusts to the Falcon to get it closer. The mind boggles about these people.:meh: :indifferent:
 
Yes you are officially a Twitcher!. Nice sharp images,pity about its "perch" but out of your control.
Apparently 2 guys have tried to capture it on a number of occasions and on Rare bird alert ,a "twitchers" web based service,it has asked people to keep their eye out for suspicious activity to be reported to the police. :shifty:
Unscrupulous photographers have also been seen to feed crickets and locusts to the Falcon to get it closer. The mind boggles about these people.:meh: :indifferent:


Lovely looking bird and you're now in the twitching gang, expect to get nods and winks from strangers in camo from now on :D
 
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is this bird a visitor from other shores?
 
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Anyway, is this bird a visitor from other shores?
Eastern Europe through to Western Europe and Asia, they tends to migrate to Africa for the winter, it seems this one got lost ;)

It may of course be an escapee, (just guessing) as they are sometimes bred and used for displays in the UK.
Its not that common, but not unheard of either.
 
Eastern Europe and Asia, they tends to migrate to Africa for the winter, it seems this one got lost ;)

It may of course be an escapee, (just guessing) as they are sometimes bred and used for displays in the UK.
Its not that common, but not unheard of either.
Thanks for the info Chris, bonny looking bird I must admit.
 
We had one down here in Cornwall either last year or year before, managed to get some very long range shots of it,
was certainly no escapee, it was very flighty, never came within a 100yrds of the birders on the day.
 
was certainly no escapee, it was very flighty, never came within a 100yrds of the birders on the day.
What I'm saying it is, that its just that its a *possibility* thats all.
(Due to the distance off course it must have been)

Eyas's straight out of the breeding chambers are also wild.
If you let it go, you'd never see it again.
So the same behaviour would apply to a captive bred..
 
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What I'm saying it is, that its just that its a *possibility* thats all.
(Due to the distance off course it must have been)

Eyas's straight out of the breeding chambers are also wild.
If you let it go, you'd never see it again.
So the same behaviour would apply to a captive bred..


I was sort of agreeing with you :) about it being possibly an escapee when comparing it to the bird
we had down here which was unapproachable compared to the one above being fed mealworms an Locust's

I think I am right in saying that just before this bird turned up there was a large movement of them on the Continent so who really knows, not me that's for sure.
 
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I was sort of agreeing with you :) about it being possibly an escapee when comparing it to the bird
we had down here which was unapproachable compared to the one above being fed mealworms an Locust's
Ah OK I misinterpreted what you were saying (y)
 
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