Three pieces of trivia - and a comment
First I recall (I hope correctly) some research where it was stated that
kestrels hunt for mice by tracking their urine in the ultra-violet. Since
mice have an open urethra they leave a trail for the kestrels to follow.
The trail disappearing could explain why they break off their hovering.
Second (censored partly because of the filters), this from
http://www.answers.com/topic/common-kestrel
Sometime before 1600 (first recorded in 1599), when the word was less taboo
than now, the Kestrel was referred to as the "windf***er", no doubt due to
its habit of beating the wind (hovering). This term was later replaced by
"windhover", (first recorded in 1674), and eventually became entrenched
through its use by the nineteenth century priest and poet Gerard Manley
Hopkins in his famous poem The Windhover: To Christ our Lord.
Ironically a metallic sculpture, named the Windover after that marvellous
poem, was put up in our foreshore at the time kestrels stopped breeding.at a
nearby church (festooned with mobile phone relays).
It's at the top of a 20m cliff, typical of our foreshore, where the kestrels
main mode of hunting is "hovering" into the sea breezes. (Hovering was also
a common technique of the Kestrels where I lived in London - but I did once
see one take a House Sparrow from the inside of litter bin.)
Michael Norris
Bayside, Melbourne
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