Many thanks to Adrian Lea who has looked through the latest photos submitted to the Bird News page and summarises his favourite pictures…
‘The birding week began with the reported sighting of a female Red-footed Falcon by Tony Blunden at Predannack. The falcon generally showed incredibly well for anyone fancying a hearty stroll across the downs and the conditions seemed perfect, the weather was glorious, the falcon reliably seemed to favour a particular fence line where it was very confiding and stayed for several days. This allowed many birders to have a great view and provided an incredible opportunity for some superb photos to be submitted by Joe Jones, Steve Rogers, Gill Fisher, Nigel Rogers, Nick Watmough, Richard Auger, Steve Ford and Jonathan Warner.

Amazingly, other Red-footed Falcon sightings were then reported from elsewhere on the Lizard (photographs by Robin Chiffers), Bodmin Moor and West Penwith with the two male Red-footed Falcons at Nanquidno in particular allowing Kevin Neal and Nigel Rogers to submit some lovely photos. Kevin Neal was also able to photograph a Honey Buzzard flying over Sennen.

While other notable birds were sighted and photographed this week, including the Sanderling by Alex McKechnie, the Black-winged Stilt by Robin Hampshire and the Wryneck by Dave Thomas it was certainly the Red-footed Falcon images that established a very high standard for the week, and there were some excellent photos submitted.

Selecting my favourite photo of the week was not an easy decision, the standard this week was incredibly high but from amongst the submitted photographs I think that the Red-footed Falcon in flight by Gill Fisher is a worthy winner.

Many thanks once again to everyone who has taken the time to submit sighting reports and photographs to our sightings team, it really is greatly appreciated.