Wildlife Wednesday: Nankeen kestrel (Falco cenchroides)

At Gnaraloo Station we get a lot of species of animals we can observe apart from our turtles. Here we also can encounter other marine species, mammals, birds and reptiles. Our team are wild about wildlife and when we take a break from turtleing, we get absorbed in taking photographs of the life around us.

It is Wednesday and from now on we will have Wildlife Wednesdays at our site!

First coming up we want to introduce you to our little family of Nankeen kestrel (Falco cenchroides). This is a small falcon (30-35cm; 60-80cm wing span) with rufous upper parts, bold black flight feathers, underpart whitish and dark tail band. They can be found all around Australia, but at Gnaraloo Homestead, we were lucky to have a nest of two chicks. Every now and then we would see the parents come with prey to feed their chicks so they could become strong flyers like them. And only recently have the chicks joined their mother in flight! We see them all flying so agile and hoovering in the air (against the very very strong wind), calling to each other and learning to hunt.
We would like to share to you a photo we managed to get of one of the chicks still at their nesting hole.
Happy Wildlife Wednesday!!

Sophia Dahl (Photo by Imogen Webster)