Amazing image & more…
After the long quiet winter we already have lots to share and we’re going to begin with this stunning shot of an Eurasian Hobby clutching a Broad-bodied Chaser dragonfly - what a cracker!
Colour-ringed Hobby in flight by Aidan Brown Photography.
Captured at a crucial moment by wildlife photographer Aidan Brown earlier this week, , this photo tells us many things. First up, we can see from the two-letter colour-ring that this is ‘DB’, an adult male Hobby fresh back from migration. Hobbies spend the winter in Africa far south of the Sahara in places like Angola and so, as a 4 year old, this Hobby has flown to Angola and back three times, that’s about 42,000km as the ‘crow’ flies, so probably something more like 45-50,000km, and that doesn’t even include any of his multitude of foraging flights en route!
Safely back, this adult is getting ready to breed, feeding up on his favourite dragonflies to replace all that energy lost on migration. And he still covers a wide area - the big reveal here is that, thanks to Aidan, we now know that this falcon is regularly feeding over 6km from his nesting territory. Of course for a Hobby, thats a mere 10 minute jaunt and well worth it for the feast, but we had no idea for, without the colour-rings, we would never have known. It just goes to show still how much we have to learn about the ecology of our favourite raptor species! Do contact if you have any sightings via the link at the foot of our website.
So what is next. Well, breeding far later than a lot of our resident and migratory species, Hobby are waiting until this year’s crow’s have vacated their nests. Or ravens, and this is where the fun begins, as this male has chosen a big old raven nest - here he is checking out the nest and shouting to his mate that he’s found a good one…
Adult male Hobby choosing a nest site.
But despite the Hobby being tiny and of no threat, the previous owners are distinctly grumbly. Nesting 30m away in their new (much bespattered!) nest, a pair of ravens have big chicks nearly ready to fledge any day. And they see the Hobby as a predator and it appears that simply because the Hobby have been laying claim to this old stick pile, the ravens have decided they also like it. Ravens are wonderful to see close up - so animated and listen to those calls.
Raven pair doing courtship on a nest.
But the ravens are also being hoggers of this old nest. Shortly, their young will be out of the nest and mobile so we expect that this will take up their full attention allowing the Hobbies to get down to some serious nest inspection and courtship of their own. We’ve had a camera on this nest for a couple of years now but last year, again, believe it or not, wood pigeons asserted their ownership of the nest, stubbornly pushing the much smaller falcons away. The Hobbies then successfully nested a few hundred meters away, see below and our blog here.
Feeding time in a Hobby nest, 2025
Of course, we’ve fingers crossed for the Hobbies to persevere although do note the size difference in this next clip. With ravens coming in at around 1.2kg to the Hobbies mere 200g, it’s not exactly an even match. Here, the female Hobby comes in and then is quickly shooed off by the far bigger raven. For now, watch this space as this Hobby pair could be one of our live-streaming nest stars of 2026. Keep an eye on our website and the Bluesky socials for news and updates.
Female Hobby and Raven at a nest.
