Welcome home!
As the first Hobbies of 2026 arrive, we look forward to another fabulous season of studying these dashing fabulous falcons.
Hobby in flight with colour-ring by Mark Wright
The long winter wait until our favourite birds return often feels all too long. And then before you know it they’re here, with birds arriving back in the UK and feeding up after their long journey north. With the first Hobbies zipping around their old breeding territories we can now claim that Spring has truly sprung!
Of course, resident species have been busy for weeks now, with young blackbirds and thrushes already out of the nest. The trees have greened up and when the sun’s out, it can feel so hot. Dragonflies will soon be hatching and this will provide a bumper feast for the hungry Hobbies and is always something special to see. This can also be a great time for photographers - check out Mark Wright’s stunning images of Hobbies in flight.
Looking for Hobbies during fieldwork
We are delighted to tell you our plans for the coming season include yet another attempt at sharing a live Hobby nest camera with the world (see here for some behind-the-scenes from 2025). Each success is an amalgamation of lots of tech wizardry, a heck of a lot of fieldcraft, and a big pinch of luck. If we pull this off it will be the 5th consecutive year of live streaming with all the highs and lows that come with watching a live wildlife camera.
With cameras already in position, it is a waiting game, patiently watching for birds to rest and recuperate to get into breeding mode. One site will be the farmland oak many of you will be familiar with from previous seasons. We also have a lens zoomed in on a large raven nest and this is in a more forested landscape with mixed grazing and pasture nearby (great for insects!). This last one will be the same pair we also had on camera last year, successfully fledging two fine young falcons (see Life in a Hobby Nest).
We’d like to say a big thanks to all who donated to DRSG to help fund camera equipment, cables, up-to-date tech and hard-drives. We dedicate hundreds of unpaid hours (often at great expense to ourselves) to carrying out monitoring, research and making the cameras happen so all of your support is gratefully appreciated. Remember, you can also buy DRSG merch via our website too.
Hobby pair courting on potential nest in a pine tree, 2025.
Of course everyone remembers 2025 where the live-streamed Hobby nest cam ended all too soon with an unexpected ending in the tummy of a goshawk (see here). Hobbies, like many other species, must work hard to eat and not be eaten with all of nature doing its best to survive and breed. More often than not they do succeed in fledging young which is always amazing to see. However, not every nest succeeds and some years weather plays havoc with the rearing of the young; in others, it is disturbance or predation.
We should also note that Hobby share the woods and heath with lots of other hungry predators - peregrine, tawny owl, sparrowhawk, buzzard and pine marten to name a few, all who are occasional predators of Hobby. Competition like this within similar species is termed Intraguild Competition and happens between owls, between falcons and also between all raptors in general (see eagle owls eat goshawks!). In the end, it is entirely up to the birds which woodland, tree and which one of the many structures -crow, buzzard, raven, heron, squirrel drey - they choose. Our years of experience give us a very good idea of what they like but ultimately it is their choice.
Feeding time in a Hobby nest
For now, we wait with bated breath and fingers crossed over the next few weeks until we know for certain what the Hobbies have chosen. When we are sure a camera nest has been chosen we will connect up the cables and tech and look to connect it to the world for everyone to watch and you will be among the first to know.
As we work hard behind the scenes to make the magic happen, keep an eye on our website and the Bluesky socials for news and updates. Until then, happy watching and may 2026 be a good one for Hobbies!
