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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rosbifs" data-source="post: 3611160" data-attributes="member: 35084">Thanks Brian,They are rare here although do turn up occasionally. The original thought was that they were reverse migrants from Spain (nearest breeding), which still might be the case for the majority, but we had a dead bird which ringed in the nest in the Crau - 3 years ago. The increase in sightings does also coincide with an increase in breeding populations in Languedoc and the Herault - we are not on an obvious migration route from those areas though.Anyway, I think I am really going to have to arm myself for future sightings. I, like you, would not be confident without photos particularly on flying non male adult birds. Its interesting that you mentioned hunting behavoir - these birds came in over an overgrown meadow (I regularly see Common Kes in this area but NEVER hunting over this area - nothing to stop them but an interesting observation nonetheless) and swirled around in twos and threes, albeit that there were only 9, eating on the wing (have heard previously can be a pointer although not diagnostic). As it happens Dragnil and I had a look at the pictures last night and we thought that a couple of the shots might actually show 'lighter' claws - one of the hovering shots sort of shows a hind claw which isn't black...A couple of the face shots look good for id and correspond to Forsman.</blockquote>