The leaves have fallen off the trees and the bare landscape offers less opportunities to hide. Winter is a time when raptors become more conspicuous. Fewer daylight hours coupled with reduced prey abundance, means birds of prey are hunting more frequently too. Peregrine, hen harrier, goshawk, short eared owl, barn owl, common buzzard and kestrel all regularly seen over the last few weeks.
The wire guards for the ‘Ethel Trees’ (the 100 trees planted on moorland by @cpre_pdsy and @eastern_moors_partnership to commemorate in 2024 the centenary of the charity that Ethel Haythornthwaite founded) provides a vantage point for this female kes.
The pop quiz fun fact about the kes is that it has ultraviolet vision – it sees light in shorter wavelengths (10 to 400 nanometers) than humans (who see between 400 and 700 nanometers) ….. and it just so happens that the urine of many small mammals and insects reflects UV light. So a kes on a perch or in the hover looks for these UV ‘footprints’, follows them in the direction in which the UV is reflected most strongly, and bingo … finds its next meal.
The efficiency with which a kes hunts due to its UV vision is much greater than that of a bird with non-UV vision.
You’re welcome.
