大象传媒

Hampstead Heath is real grassland. In most parks, grass is kept nicely mowed. But not on Hampstead Heath. There鈥檚 a very, very carefully worked out management plan and the whole idea is to encourage as much wildlife as possible into these grassland areas, and in fact this bit down the middle here is absolutely alive at this time of the year with little critters. Of course it鈥檚 just after the grass has been mowed that all these little things are exposed, the caterpillars, the grasshoppers, the insects. And in come the crows, as you鈥檇 expect. They鈥檙e opportunists and they鈥檒l eat anything, but birds of prey? Shouldn鈥檛 they pick on something their own size? I mean, come on. Kestrels going for grasshoppers? A young kestrel practises its pouncing technique on grasshoppers. You can tell this is a youngster - look very closely at the feather markings and you'll see they鈥檙e very, very neat. Every feather is very neat 鈥榗os they鈥檙e nice and new. The kestrels have got lots of perches round here. There are favourite ones. That鈥檚 the thing about your local patch: you can anticipate what鈥檚 going to happen to a point. You get to know every branch, every tree. You can come out here and say 'Are there any kestrels?', and you don鈥檛 just look in the sky, you know they鈥檙e going to be in that tree or that tree. Another kestrel is practising hovering - the lazy way. You don鈥檛 do it in mid-air, you sit on a branch and let the wind do the movement for you. The head is absolutely still and the body going backwards and forwards. Of course the paths aren鈥檛 actually there for kestrels, they are there for people, but that鈥檚 one of the things about a local patch in the city. The wildlife gets used to people. Quite a big family walking past, but the kestrel takes no notice at all. And yet when you get this close you鈥檙e reminded this is a wild bird. Actually, if you are lucky enough to come across a young kestrel it鈥檚 amazing how close you can get sometimes.