Hot Foot to the Red Foot in Somerset 31st May 2018

Red footed Falcons are a rare but annual visitor to these shores, normally breeding from eastern Europe to Asia and migrating to and from Africa, where they spend the winter. Sadly they are declining due to habitat  loss and persecution so when one arrives in Britain they are always worth making the effort to go and see. They are very attractive birds, especially the females, which have a complex patterned plumage of bars and streaks on orange and grey plumage compared to the overall unmarked grey of the male.They are small, agile and long winged falcons, something akin to a cross between a Common Kestrel and a European Hobby.

A report of a first summer female Red footed Falcon that had taken up temporary residence by the River Isle at a small rural village called Isle Brewers and was allowing really good views was tempting, and I duly made the two hour journey to Isle Brewers, which lies just east of Taunton in South Somerset. The majority of the journey was on the M5 Motorway so I got to Taunton with little trouble but the weather forecast was not good, predicting heavy thundery rain showers from lunchtime onwards, on what was so far a very humid and warm day, .

As I could not get away until lunchtime I was taking a risk and the first of the heavy rain showers duly arrived as I drove down the M5 Motorway beyond Bristol. I pressed on and by the time I had negotiated the country lanes off the motorway that took me to Isle Brewers, the rain had ceased but looked like it would return at some point in the near future.

I had a window of opportunity but although there was no rain there was also no sign of the falcon when I got to Isle Brewers. Instructions on RBA said to view the falcon from the narrow bridge over the River Isle along Islemoor Road, which is exactly where I parked but a lady there told me the falcon had been perched for a long time in some adjacent poplars by the river, then caught a damselfly and flew off but no one knew where it had gone.

I stood about and then wandered a footpath next to the river, through a field full of cows. I could see immediately why the falcon favoured the river and surrounding fields as it was teeming with Beautiful Demoiselle damselflies. My initial wanderings only revealed a distant male Common Kestrel perched high on a branch of a long dead tree but after this minor excitement I found nothing to set my pulse racing.

I walked back to the road and the narrow bridge and stood awhile, looking over a field and the river on the other side of the narrow road. A Lesser Whitethroat rattled out the crescendo of its song from deep within a hawthorn nearby. Although invisible it was so near you could also hear the faint warble that precedes the loud finale to its song

Then a grey bird with very pointed wings and a long tail zoomed very low across the field and river and was gone before I realised that this had to be the Red footed Falcon. It was gone in a flash and I almost thought I had imagined the whole episode. it was over so quickly. There was no sign of the falcon in the sky but then a minute later I found it perched in a distant dead tree on the far side of the river.

I left the road and walked a permissive footpath that crossed a field and got to a gate where I could go no further. This had allowed me to get closer to the falcon but it was still distant, though not so far that I could not see its pale orange head and grey barred upperparts. I watched it preening and looking around for twenty or so minutes before it took to the air and skimming low at incredible speed over the field I had just walked through, it hurtled back and fore with great agility chasing damselflies, one of which it caught and ate on the wing, bringing the insect clutched in its orange feet up to its bill as it slowed, but still remained airborne. Then it was off again, whizzing around and over the field at top speed looking for another victim.

The falcon finally flew up into its favourite poplars and sat there for  ten minutes and then was back to its aerobatics again, zooming back and fore, over and around the river, before disappearing into the distance.

I looked to my right and was dismayed to see the sky darkening markedly from the west, pressaging another heavy downpour. The rain started slowly but soon became torrential and there was no let up. I retreated to the car, sodden and uncomfortable, to sit for another long period as the rain continued to fall, but finally and thankfully it slowed and then ceased.

I got out of the car and stood by the bridge to see if the falcon would show up again and it duly did but this time there was to be no low level flypast, as the falcon occupied the airspace at a higher level. However, I  got really good views of it as it sheered and doubled back after insects at just above treetop height.

The gap in the weather could not last and the rain returned, so both myself and the falcon got very wet again as we stuck it out in the rain. The falcon attempted to land in the topmost, rain sodden, leafy  branches of a couple of trees close by the river and I could see it was very wet, the feathers on its head bedraggled and out of place due to the persistent rain. It had problems balancing on the small leafy twigs and at times had to use its wings to balance. Eventually it realised that this was not the best place to perch and flew to the poplars once more and seemed happier there.

Having had my fill of both rain and seeing the falcon I left,  to dry out in the car and make my way home in what was now continuous rain. Still it had been good while it lasted.