A few weeks ago I became aware of a pair of Kestrels that were showing interest in a nest ledge at the site of the Peregrine Falcons that I am licensed to photograph.  It is almost a week since I visited the site and even on my 2 previous visits I had seen the Kestrels and I imagined that they had decided not to breed at this site. Perhaps the male is too young? I visited the site today hoping to photograph the Peregrines from a hide that is set up next to an old oak tree.  I settled down for what I expected to be the usual wait and to help pass the time I started to read from my iPad.  Suddenly I heard the Kestrels who were calling very loudly and were very close.  Before I knew it there was the male on the perch in front of me.  I was caught off guard and I failed to get a shot before it flew off, still calling and obviously down on the nest ledge.  i was disappointed not to have managed at least one shot because for several weeks I had imagined that any shot from this hide and on that perch would be quite a good one.  Then just before I had chance to feel too disappointed, there it was again, or so I thought, but this time it was the female.  I took loads of photos and had chance to have a really good close look at it before it flew off as well but it had been there for at least 5 minutes.  As if that wasn't enough suddenly there was the male and he stayed for quite a while and I not only took some great photos I could also study him really well.  

Both pictures above show the female which was slightly larger than the male and the most obvious differences was the brown tail banded with dark bands in the female and a grey blue tail in the male, banded with dark bands.  These bands are absent in males that are 2 years old or more. In addition to the colour of the tail the back of the male is also much richer brown – in fact almost brick red.  I think that if the bird (below) were older then the moustache strike would be bolder and more defined as it is in the female above.  Look at the beak of the male below, on the upper bill you can see the tomial tooth which is a feature of falcons and also very noticeable in Peregrines.