1st winter female Lesser Kestrel (Falco naumanni), Fraisthorpe, East Yorkshire, October 2019
Identification notes on the juvenile Lesser Kestrel (Falco naumanni), present at Fraisthorpe, East Yorkshire 22nd-23rd October 2019 and quick notes on the separation from the extremely similar Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) On Tuesday 22nd October, Kevin Groocock’s photographed a juvenile naumanni at Fraisthorpe, East Yorkshire. The following are some notes on this birds identification and subsequent sightings on 23rd October. I was not lucky enough to see it in the field but analysis here is going from Kevin Groocock’s excellent photos online (22nd) and Mark Pearson’s (23rd) that he was kind enough to email over to me. The first feature that instantly hits you, in Kevin’s photos, is how plain faced this bird is with a sandy-buff overall colouration. The open and plaintive face, arises from a weak rear eye stripe and lack of a dusky wash to its ear coverts. In tinnunculus the lateral crown stripe is more defined and darker, which gives tinnunculus a more aggressive f
