--- James Wolstencroft <gonolek@gmail.com> wrote:

> From: James Wolstencroft [mailto:gonolek@gmail.com] 
> Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2006 12:48 PM
> To: 'tanzaniabirds@yahoogroups.com'
> Subject: Fox Kestrel - Angyata Osugat, 40km north of
> Arusha - 8 March 2006
> 

> Further to yesterday's communications.
> 
> Carefully nonchalant sms msg from JW, Anabel Harries
> & Frank Christopher on
> 'Lark Plains' - Wednesday morning, March 8, 2006. 
> 
> "Fox Kestrel catching giant dung beetles in flight,
> magic!"
> And those immediately subsequent cell phone
> exchanges regarding the risk of
> causing you cardio-vascular irregularity - herewith
> please find Annabel's
> excellent hand-held record shots of the bird and a
> brief tale of a russet
> tail.
> 
> We found the bird entirely by chance, how else?
> 
> Mid cloudy morning on the outermost outwash fan of
> Mount Meru I had decided
> that we should undertake what I felt sure would be a
> 'negative registration
> transect' for Beesley's Lark in the northeast sector
> of the Osugat plain. So
> we set off from the northern track that crosses the
> plain walking southwards
> three abreast, spaniel at heel, in the general
> direction of Momella.  As
> anticipated there were very few larks of any species
> on the eroded and
> close-cropped tussock sward of this sector.  A
> couple of post-cyclone rains
> ubiquitous dun-coloured Athi Short-toed Larks
> fluttered-up ahead of us, one
> even rose heavenwards to provide some faltering
> song, a very small number of
> itinerant Fischer's Sparrow-larks (ca 10) were
> tracking westward across our
> path into the open plain. Nothing at all to compare
> with the symphony of
> five larks enjoyed only an hour earlier in the
> western sector. 
> 
> After a few minutes trudge yields one male Montagu's
> Harrier, two Temminck's
> Coursers and two Common Kestrels I notice a falcon
> shape rise from the
> ground 200 metres or so directly ahead of us, fly
> fast and low to the right
> then body-twist to neatly catch something small in
> mid-air. Up go the bins,
> and awareness goes into that million year old,
> adrenalin-fueled   'wild
> image playback mode' that some of us just know and
> love: flash memory
> comparison. "Wing pattern like a Grasshopper Buzzard
> , White-eyed Kestrel
> body shape maybe, but that colour? Overall richer
> than a Brahminy Kite and
> that full paddle of a tail, it glows richly redder
> than on any Red Kite."
> 
> After a conscious inhalation I knew that such a
> slim, red and acrobatic
> falcon here in Africa must surely be Fox Kestrel,
> distant memories hazily
> recollected from the Sudanese border of Ethiopia on
> Christmas Day 1993.
> However, we must completely eliminate the
> possibility of White-eyed which,
> there being an arguably resident pair on the plain,
> is a tad more likely at
> this spot.
> 
> We walked on toward the bird's position, it had
> dropped into a broad 'furrow
> of dead ground'. Gradually we got closer and Anabel
> started taking some long
> range record shots. The bird would not allow a close
> approach but by
> mingling into a large and fairly fast moving mass of
> mammals; two hundred
> piebald sheep, two Somali donkeys and two little
> shepherd boys, who were all
> closing from our right; heading in the same
> direction straight toward the
> kestrel - we were able to get a good bit closer and
> Anabel secured a few
> essential images. 
> 
> Over a period of perhaps one hour the bird mostly
> perched on the sparsely
> grassed ground, scanning attentively this way and
> that, yet revealing little
> more than head and shoulders. Intermittently it
> would rise to fly on
> 'beautifully elasticized wings' low over the sward
> before executing a neat
> sideways flick to grab and dispatch a cruising dung
> beetle. It would then
> alight delicately on the ground and consume whatever
> was required of the
> beetle. 
> 
> Its incredibly rich colouration was a sight to
> behold. In particular the
> slightly graduated tail, the rump and mantle were a
> glowing russet red in
> the neutral light of that cloudy morning. At rest
> the blackish primaries
> contrasted very markedly with the rest of the bird.
> We tried hard to
> establish iris colour but could say only that they
> appeared warmish,
> definitely not white, maybe yellowish-brown. The
> feet were yellow. In flight
> the bird was always a joy to watch; the pale, almost
> translucent, lightly
> barred panel in the spread primaries was
> conspicuous, especially pale when
> seen from below or when the bird executed a sharp
> turn to snatch a beetle.
> 
> After being chivvied along ahead of the grazing
> sheep for some fifteen
> minutes the bird began back-tracking, moving little
> by little northwards
> toward the main track.  Eventually it took off, rose
> higher on deep downward
> strokes the fifth or sixth of which was somehow
> interrupted to give the
> accelerating flight a very distinctive manner. After
> achieving the desired
> altitude or thermal position it circled buoyantly
> into the now clearing sky.
> It was then in company with two out of a group of
> seven or so soaring Common
> Kestrels who had been, somewhat clumsily, diving
> earthwards to catch dung
> beetles. When last seen it was drifting slowly
> westwards at a height of
> maybe 200 metres.
 
> All in all: one of those absolutely superb breaks
> that just make it all
> worthwhile.
>
> James


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