RecoveringScot
Well-known member
From this summary, which includes the Noss bird in May, it appears that the last records of female Lesser Kestrel were in 1897 and 1903 (shot and dead respectively):
http://www.rarebirdalert.co.uk/v2/Content/WeeklyRoundup2017-22.aspx?s_id=947090391
That this should be so in a migratory species is rather odd, especially as the majority of the 20 accepted records are for easily identifiable males, and there is apparently only one record of a 'juvenile'.
This suggests to me that maybe female/juv Kestrels are not being examined ultra-closely, but that people may assume that that's what they are, not considering the rarer option. I know that when I first saw the photograph of the Noss bird (on 21st May in comfortable conditions at home with a cuppa and a fag) I *sensed* it was something different (wrong 'jizz'), but since I actually would have been unable off the top of my head to give any actual plumage characters in support, and even when I posted here the first responders, who were British, didn't seem terribly sure of the diagnostic features either (the pale claws one was the only real apparently solid datum, and perhaps the 'longer wings') perhaps this reflects a lack of expectation amongst the home birdwatchers? In the follow-up post two European members offered definite diagnostic points of difference visible on the Noss bird almost right away.
We get lots of female Red-footed Falcon, so isn't it likely that female LKs are in fact just as likely to be seen here, especially at late spring overshoot time, though as the species is declining, perhaps in slightly smaller numbers?
http://www.rarebirdalert.co.uk/v2/Content/WeeklyRoundup2017-22.aspx?s_id=947090391
That this should be so in a migratory species is rather odd, especially as the majority of the 20 accepted records are for easily identifiable males, and there is apparently only one record of a 'juvenile'.
This suggests to me that maybe female/juv Kestrels are not being examined ultra-closely, but that people may assume that that's what they are, not considering the rarer option. I know that when I first saw the photograph of the Noss bird (on 21st May in comfortable conditions at home with a cuppa and a fag) I *sensed* it was something different (wrong 'jizz'), but since I actually would have been unable off the top of my head to give any actual plumage characters in support, and even when I posted here the first responders, who were British, didn't seem terribly sure of the diagnostic features either (the pale claws one was the only real apparently solid datum, and perhaps the 'longer wings') perhaps this reflects a lack of expectation amongst the home birdwatchers? In the follow-up post two European members offered definite diagnostic points of difference visible on the Noss bird almost right away.
We get lots of female Red-footed Falcon, so isn't it likely that female LKs are in fact just as likely to be seen here, especially at late spring overshoot time, though as the species is declining, perhaps in slightly smaller numbers?
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