Birds of Prey Offshore (1 Viewer)

hillie

Well-known member

• Sep 19, 2005

• #1

Some of my colleagues working on a vessel offshore are divided on the id of the attached birds of prey, so your help would be appreciated.
The vessel is working 50 miles east of Aberdeen. The first shows a bird on the helideck, the second, taken from below shows one bird on the helideck and another on the guard rail on the left. The quality is not that good as they were taken with the ships camera through a beat up pair of binos, digiscoping at its basic. Consensus of opinion is divided between Kestrel and Merlin.

 

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Jane Turner

Well-known member

• Sep 19, 2005

• #2

They are clearly one or the other... and with not much to go on I'd say tentatively Merlin on the 1st pic on account to the tail length (though this is guesswork) and Kestrel on the seond pic - on the lightish breast streaking and the rather rufous colour.

 

stuart winter

My Eyes Have Seen the Glory of the Cups at WHL

• Sep 19, 2005

• #3

I would hazard Kestrel. The breast streaking looks pretty uniform where as on Merlins the streaks tend to become larger and more pronounced as they reach the belly and flanks. The bird also looks a little gingery - the background tone on the underpart is also quite warm - and I cannot make out a supercilium. Admittedly the tail looks quite short and blunt in the silhouette picture, but is that a trick of the camera?

S

 

Andrew Rowlands

Well-known member

• Sep 19, 2005

• #4

Hmmm ... more guesswork - both photo's seem to be of the same bird as it it looks to be perched in the same spot on the superstructure, Kestrel for me.

Cheers,

Andy.

 

hillie

Well-known member

• Sep 19, 2005

• #5

Andy,
If you look at the first photo to the left there is another perched there

 

MSA

I may be relaxed but I'm not drunk....

• Sep 19, 2005

• #6

All 3 look like Kestrel to me.

 

Andrew Rowlands

Well-known member

• Sep 19, 2005

• #7

hillie said:

Andy,
If you look at the first photo to the left there is another perched there

Click to expand...

:t:

Shows how observant I am! Not much to go on here, the bird appears darker but that might just be down to being in a position where there is less light reaching it, I'd guess it's another Kestrel ...

Anyone know when Scandinavian Kestrels migrate, compared to Merlins (from anywhere bordering the North Sea, I guess)?

What date were the photo's taken hillie?

Andy.

 

jforgham

Birding for fun

• Sep 19, 2005

• #8

Hi,
On what I can see I would say both birds were kestrels in one photo and the photo with the brown/rufous bird rather then the silhouetted birds is definitely a kestrel.
Jono

 

hillie

Well-known member

• Sep 19, 2005

• #9

Andy,
Photos were taken end of August.