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St Ives UK Kestrel (1 Viewer)

Chris Oates

Why does a Black-headed Gull have a brown head...
Female Kestrel with a fair sized Rat - usual prey is voles
 

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Nice pic, but the prey looks more like a Field Vole to me - greyer than a rat, blunter nosed, and with a hairy tail (the base just visible).
 
Concur Field Vole, though rats can be very grey and their noses are not really sharp: size however is vole-sized and the tail is too thin for even a juvenile rat of that size, as well as being hairy. An adult Brown Rat would be nearly the same size as the Kestrel as well as having a long, thick scaly tail that would inevitably show on this photo.

John
 
Concur Field Vole, though rats can be very grey and their noses are not really sharp: size however is vole-sized and the tail is too thin for even a juvenile rat of that size, as well as being hairy. An adult Brown Rat would be nearly the same size as the Kestrel as well as having a long, thick scaly tail that would inevitably show on this photo.

John
Certainly agree on Vole,as said a Brown Rat would be too big a prey for a Kestrel unless is was already dead but even then it would struggle to get airborne with it.
 
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