I had a pleasant surprise this afternoon in the Wetland Pen, area 32. My attention was drawn to the sound of what I took to be mating a pair of mating Kestrels. The new male still in superb condition seems to have ousted the old male. So I thought this was the pair bonding. However when a pair of Magpies starting mobbing something inside the Willow tree. At first I couldn’t see anything and everything settled down. A few minutes later the male was back with a small rodent, more vocalising and he was off again. I then noticed the female perched on the rim of the nest box, she would have had to have become invisible to get there from the tree to the box without me seeing her. I went and had another look in the canopy, and was astounded to find a fairly recently fledged Kestrel. It appeared to be the only one in the area. How it had gone unnoticed until then is a mystery, though it could be that as the only bird in the nest, the amount of prey coming in would have been far fewer than if four chicks had hatched.
The new male Kestrel in the Wetland Pen.
The recently fledged Kestrel
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