Walking over the footbridge back to the car park I looked up and saw a Kestrel, binning it anyway I immediately saw another raptor some way above it at about 300-400 feet, moving fast South. It was more slender and rakish, had more pointed wings, fast wing beats and shorter narrow tail, but the hedgerow on our right blocked our view straight away.
I ran to the car park and put up my scope hoping to get back onto it. Scanning with bins, I picked it up over the golf course, it was fluttering its wings, then went into a fast dive, out of view, but then up and down again twice, two attempts to get the scope onto it then showed a compact bird, but no chance of colour against the morning sun. It can only have been a Merlin was my conclusion.
This was the 93rd species for the month and equalled the 2010 record, which may or may not be a record, because back in the 80's and 90's, not every species seen was made a note of, at least for the more common species and late/early migrants
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