THE KESTREL NO MORE BOGEY BIRD

In the last one and a half years that I have started taking photo's of birds, one in particular has eluded me. I have seen this bird many times but never managed to get a good photograph, So here's the story. Yesterday Sat 2nd May I got up early looked out of the window, weather was fine and clear so where shall I head off to for a few hours birding. I fancied somewhere different but in the end I decided not to waste time driving and headed off to St Gothian Sands at Godrevy. After parking and just as I got through the entrance to the reserve I heard someone call, it was Paul who runs the Cornwall Birding Site & The St Gothian Sands Blog. So we spent an hour walking around the reserve, birds of note were Swifts, Swallows, Sand martins, also Reed Warbler,Sedge Warbler and Whitethroat. After this Paul decided to go home as he had been on duty all night and needed some sleep, just before he left he spotted a Kestrel sitting on some wires a distance away. So here it was again my Bogey bird to photograph, as many times I have seen them sitting out but never been able to get close enough, so setting off across the sand dunes I got close to the path leading towards the bird when another person walked along the path about 15 metres in front of me. "Oh please don't flush it" was running through my mind, but as he got close off the bird went but it only went past the next pole and landed on the wires . So now it was slowly slowly moving forward and taking some shots every few metres, eventually I got almost underneath it stayed still. The following 30 minutes I shall never forget as I took photo's at will, and though it flew three times I always managed to get close to it and in the end I think it accepted my presence. So below is a selection of images of my not so bogey bird anymore.

THE KESTREL.