HOBBY'S

A birding friend of ours called Brian Chappell was lucky enough to discover a pair of breeding Hobby's on his patch in a place called the Vale in Glamorgan S. Wales and he was kind enough to invite myself and Steve Bool down there to take a look at these beautiful raptors.

We couldn't stop long as we didn't want to disturb the birds but were lucky enough to have some superb views of these cracking birds of prey that come here all the way from the south of the Sahara Desert in tropical Africa to breed and stay with us through the Summer months.

During our short visit we managed some pictures of the adults and the two youngsters which were quite close to fully fledging and leaving the nest.

Here are some of our efforts.

Hobby

hobby chicks close to fledging

The male Hobby was a right feisty individual, chasing off anything that came near the nest, when we were there it chased off a Peregrine falcon before settling back down near the female.

The great news is that both chicks have fledged successfully and were joining the adults out of the nest. They should hopefully be on their way to Africa by now but what a privilege it was to spend an hour with these absolute beauties.