Birding Group Visit to Neumann’s Flash : 7th June 2011
The weather held up for our birding group visit to Neumann’s Flash (part of the Northwich Woodland Area) and rained just a little towards lunchtime. As soon as we parked up we saw a Kestrel high in the sky. As we waited for the others to arrive, we watched as it circled around in front of us before slowly coming down and hovering for a while. It then seemed to dive down and after a short while it came back up with something really quite large and furry (or fluffy !!) in its talons. It is possible that it had gone into a small tree and plucked a nestling out of a nest there. It is certainly true that as it reached the tree level a Magpie shot out of the tree quickly. If this is what it did, it probably dropped it on the ground and then picked it up again. It hovered around and flew off a couple of yards before settling back on the ground to have its meal.