Nankeen Kestrel

Description:

This is one of a pair of these Kestrels that I have seen at this location for the last 2 days (see my posting from yesterday for a couple more pictures and description). Today, rather than just sitting on a block of concrete and then flying away, he (she?) was quite active in hunting, and gave me a lot of opportunities to photograph some behavioural shots as well.

Habitat:

As I said before, this pair seem to have this whole open headland as their territory. They hover over the dropoffs down to the sea, as well as just perching on various observation points. Observation is not always from a high vantage point - sometimes they perch high on the buildings, but also as you can see in the photos, the back of a bench seems quite sufficient, and those concrete blocks are only about 5 feet high.

Notes:

Not sure if this is nesting time for them, but these petite hawks were fiercely defensive, chasing off a couple of raucous Magpies that were at least twice their size. Thankfully, they didn't consider me such a threat - just something to keep an eye on rather than chase and attack...