Kestrels

andyhinch said:
If you lot ever get the chance to fish off Mull it's worth it just to see the fish Eagles, fantastic birds and a good deal bigger than Goldies.
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Fished on Mull with brother snork 25 years ago. Beautiful sights
 
snorky said:
I love it mate. I only salmon fish the middle river, with a bit of grayling and trouting on low water. There are loads of barbel, in the old days they would have chucked them up the bank!
The best trout and grayling fishing would be on the upper river I would say. Take a look on the Wye and Usk Foundation. They have loads of day ticket water. If you fancy catching barbel give me a shout in the summer. On our beat you cant fail!
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I cut my teeth on Barbel on the Swale near Richmond. Hardest fighting fish I have caught per pound. Make Rainbow's look effete - I believe Salmon give your string a good pull though! Thanks for the info - i must try harder to get down. Usually when I am in England I'm on one of the big reservoirs - Rutland, Graftham, and particularly Draycote.
 
andyhinch said:
IT is, not sure if sea eagles had been reintroduced back then, best photo of a peregrine I ever saw was one hunting grouse, in one frame it'd hit one and that was tumbling to the ground just as it hit a second, photo of a lifetime
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Mull is amazing for wild life - The sea eagles are just bloody awesome. Like a flying barn door!
 
snorky said:
Don't come canoeing any higher. I have a gun! :) On a serious note linked with the thread, one of the best places to see peregrine falcons is Yat rock. I used to fish it years ago, until I gave up due to the volume of canoeists, and saw them regularly.
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A true story about Peregrines: My neighbour kept racing pigeons - really into it he was with some expensive birds. One morning Mrs S is in the kitchen and hears this hellish squawking from next doors back yard. She pokes her head over the wall and a Peregrine is plucking one of the neighbours finest. Bill (the neighbour) shoots out his back door with a sweeping brush and throws it like a javelin at the raptor. It hit the bird full on and killed it stone dead. So much for protected species!! He was a really nice old guy and I'm not a snitch so today is the first time Ive told that story - it was about 10 years ago and sadly Bill has since joined the lovely Peregrine.
 
Barcon said:
One of the kids that hung around with us used to climb up the side of the mill and take the little uns from their nests.
Every kid on the street had a pet kestrel. I have no idea how the **** didn't fall and die.
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Like young Casper you mean?

 
Saddleworth2 said:
I cut my teeth on Barbel on the Swale near Richmond. Hardest fighting fish I have caught per pound. Make Rainbow's look effete - I believe Salmon give your string a good pull though! Thanks for the info - i must try harder to get down. Usually when I am in England I'm on one of the big reservoirs - Rutland, Graftham, and particularly Draycote.
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A big springer on the fly or a fresh run sea trout at night. Heaven........gawd im getting old!
 
Saddleworth2 said:
I cut my teeth on Barbel on the Swale near Richmond. Hardest fighting fish I have caught per pound. Make Rainbow's look effete - I believe Salmon give your string a good pull though! Thanks for the info - i must try harder to get down. Usually when I am in England I'm on one of the big reservoirs - Rutland, Graftham, and particularly Draycote.
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I agree mate, Barbel pound for pound are IMO the strongest fighting fish in the UK, and I have caught the occasional salmon, plus many carp. Barbel are perfectly formed in their torpedo shape for fast flowing rivers, and are pure muscle giving great sport.

You ever fished the Swale nicknamed 'animal farm' Cundall? Not fished it myself for what must be 17 years. Some real big Barbel and Chub in there. I rarely get to fish nowadays. Not too arsed on not going fishing tbh these days in the uk, but I miss the wildlife on the banks in their natural habitat.

I prefer a week or two in pursuit of Catfish on European rivers when I get the chance, and I've seen some impressive birds of prey in Spain.
 
heading up to Northern Idaho in Feb to fish the Clearwater River for Steelhead, that's a fun time
 
andyhinch said:
If you lot ever get the chance to fish off Mull it's worth it just to see the fish Eagles, fantastic birds and a good deal bigger than Goldies.
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I scrambled around a small headland on Mull once whilst spinning for pollock and almost got my head taken off by a low flying sea eagle. Awesome birds.
 
andyhinch said:
IT is, not sure if sea eagles had been reintroduced back then, best photo of a peregrine I ever saw was one hunting grouse, in one frame it'd hit one and that was tumbling to the ground just as it hit a second, photo of a lifetime
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Had the pleasure of seeing two Peregrines this year, quite a sight and a lot smaller than you'd think.
 
idahoblues said:
I've been a birder my whole life but really love raptors, we have a fine variety around here and I can sit and watch them for hours. Recently I've been noticing a lot of torn up starlings over the yard, mainly feathers, blood and the odd head and figured it was a gosshawk or something middling in size as we've had them before.I came home for lunch today , just as I pulled in I see this starling take off and out of the blue a kestrel appeared in a full dive and exploded that fucking starling, took it to the ground and pulled it apart, the starling schreeching really loud. The American Kestrel is smaller than the european one, beautifully coloured and well ard!

Just wanted to share my story :)
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The american Kestrel is an awesome predator to watch, they are quite mesmerizing in a chase.
I just went out to scare the pigeons off my feeder and a coopers hawk came out of nowhere and took one of them mid take off, it was really cool as I was only ten feet away!
 
Didn't they used to have kestrel nesting in the town hall tower in Albert sq to keep the pigeons down or did I just dream that up?
 
BlueBearBoots said:
Didn't they used to have kestrel nesting in the town hall tower in Albert sq to keep the pigeons down or did I just dream that up?
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It would probably have been a peregrine, kestrels in this country mostly feed on small rodents living in long grass, which is why you never see Gary Neville in a meadow.
 
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"It's proper bo' I tell thee!" ... Bo Selecta - The Craig David

 
bluemoon risin' said:
that is true, but I haven't a clue why they hover at the side of a motorway.
Anyone know why?
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Maybe I'm being Clarkied here but I'll bite... you don't maybe think it might be something to do with the embankments of long grass at the side of the motorway?
 
When we lived in Catalonia a mate of mine sold his property to a guy who used to hunt and do shows with Harris hawks. Whilst he was showing us his hawks and in a spontanious moment of pure stupidity I put a tiny piece of chicken on the tip of my nose and watched as this hawk, I'd never been so close to one in my life nor since, pick it off. Dont know what made me do it, I suppose it was such a feeling of total trust in the bird. Fantastic creatures.
 
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