Lucky!

Malcolm and I walked to Straws Bridge this morning as the wind blew and the sun struggled to peep through the clouds. Heading back, we came past some more of the small lakes which make up the string of waterways in that area. I was struck by the number of berries on the Spindle trees (Euonymus europaeus).

The sun was shining a little more resolutely by this time and the views through the trees and across the lake were rather nice.

Walking back by the 'Bogwash' we spotted what I thought was a Kestrel flying around the lake. Something wasn't right and as the kestrel flew nearer I noticed it wasn't a kestrel at all. It was in fact, a Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus)!

Pointing my camera in the general direction of this swift-moving bird I snapped a couple of shots off in the hope that I could catch at least a half-decent picture. The result, as you can see from the above picture were not brilliant, but it was quite a way off and flying very fast. What luck! A couple of minutes later the Peregrine had flown off so it goes to show how fortunate we were to have been in the right place at the right time to glimpse this, the fastest animal in the world.
It was marvelous to see how the skies cleared of other birds while the Peregrine was flying around the lake. It had complete control of the air during it's brief sojourn but within a couple of minutes of it moving off, the pigeons started appearing again as the threat had passed.