Hobby (Falco Subbuteo)

We have just returned from Norfolk which included a visit to RSPB Strumpshaw for only our second time.

No Swallow Tails this time although a few are about the reserve but we had a good day and saw our first Cuckoo of the year having previously heard three elsewhere in the country.

In the afternoon we sat in Fen Hide for a while (it did rain briefly, hence the dark shots) but having watched a a pair of Marsh Harriers flying over the reed bed we then had a Sparrowhawk sat in the dead tree in front of the hide.

Pat then spotted another raptor in a tree to the edge of the reed bed which we identified as a Hobby.

Having flown off it then flew in five minutes later fast and low over the pool in front of the hide, a couple of circuits and it flew straight at the hide with a dragonfly in its claws, I only managed a couple of shots, my first of this bird but a great treat to watch its aerial acrobatics.