Red-footed Falcons

There is no putting it off, no exercising self-control. No, I am compelled, forced against my will, to post up a whole pile of photos of these fantastic birds from Hungary. In a hide 30 feet in the air, you're level with about four nest boxes, and you can watch their every move. Forget the photography, I'd do it even without a camera, the views - the whole experience - is simply brilliant - through bins, these birds literally sparkle. No other views of Red-footed Falcon will ever be good enough ever again, and barring an adult male in my garden, or perhaps on Wanstead Flats if we're stretching it, I doubt I will twitch a bird in the UK again as it will only be a let down. I spent a morning and an afternoon on two separate days in here - baking hot but you forget about that. For the morning session we faced west, the afternoon east, as there are windows on both sides and this allowed us to study two different pairs. Unfortunately the female on the west side had a gammy eye, so unless she faced right, which she rarely did, there were not photos of her as it was all a bit icky, and the female on the east spent almost the whole time in the nest box. However the male bird on the east side was simply gorgeous and so got most of the attention. He is the fussiest creature I think I've ever seen (apart from Mick S perhaps!), nothing was ever perfect, his feathers never exactly as he wanted them. He spent approximately 95% of the time preening, and even the simple act of grasshopper delivery for the female to then rip it up and feed it to the four chicks was enough to send him to his perch for a good ten minutes of recuperation and self-grooming. I too became fairly fussy, looking for nice backgrounds, particular poses and so on, getting a bit arty with the composition. I mean why not?

Anyhow, enough words, I know that's not why you visit any more......there are about three billion more of these starting here if these are still insufficient. Little crackers.