can kestrels tell the time?

[crisgal]

every day, on my way to work, i see a kestrel(or similar), hovering above something. It is high in the sky and focused on something in particular.
If I'm a few minutes earlier or later, it's not there.
Surely whatever it's after, doesn't pop out of it's hidey hole at the same time each day?
I could understand it if it is when the sun has just come up, or something, but it's at 8.25!

[RATTER15]

The reason he is high in the sky is from there he can keep an eye on the time on the clock tower.

[weecalf]

Mabe he has to get out of the house before loraine kelly starts Loraine Kelly is okay but you know what kestrels are like .They like nobody

[crisgal]

lol

[wolf63]

I know that animals can tell the time - perhaps not in the way that we understand time but they do have a concept of time.

I am in no way awake enough to work this out. But dogs/cats have been known to wait for their owners coming home from work - sitting by the window in preparation for their arrival.

I think that it is time for a nap for me! ;-)

[tiggerblue10]

They have their own in-built body clock I would imagine. During the eclipse of the sun in 1999, the birds started screeching and skawlking overhead as they thought it was night. Must have been very confusing for them.

[nightmare]

How's this for weird:
one of my dogs waits at the window for me coming home from work. That could be any time from around 6.00 to well after 7.00, but he always knows a few minutes before when I will arrive.
I occasionally have to travel abroad for work and could be away for anything from a couple of days to two weeks. During that time, he never goes to the window until the day I return, and that could be any time from early morning to late night, but he knows a few minutes before and waits for me.
Also, I often travel using hire cars, so that rules out any distinctive sound of my car (and believe me, my car makes some pretty distinctive sounds nowadays -196000 miles on the clock !) - he always knows just a few minutes before I return.

[wildwood]

Birds of Prey usually have their own hunting patch so they are very familiar with where they hunt and often have a set route they 'inspect' until they strike it lucky.

As said above, all animals have an internal clock which is a lot more accurate than ours.

It may be someone's aviary with birds or an guinea pig pen that it is keeping an eye on, it doesn't know any better.

[seadogg]

There is a kestrel that works the cliffs at the same time and in the same order every morning as the dog and I do our morning walk along the coast.

Agree about dogs nightmare.

[seekeerz]

Jamie, my Westie, can tell when it';s dinner time - 5.30 - to the minute, even after daylight saving comes in and woe betide us if we're not there to get it for him - the others just go along for the ride.
My cats were the same

[mrs.chappie]

We used to have free-flying budgies and there was one little bird that had a swing in the window.

He always knew (roughly) when my husband was due back from work and he'd sit on the swing, flapping excitedly when he saw the car pull onto the drive (the budgie, not the husband).

[raptorfrank]

hi many people get confused between kestrels and sparrowhawks what you have seen is a kestrel, they are small falcons and they hunt from high up and are after small mamals there eyesight is fantastic they old contry nickname is wind hover as they can hover and keep there head perfectly still, they uded to be our most comon bird of prey but not now the buzzard now routes as our commonest raptor (name for birds of prey)

[JonnyBoy12]

Well, nightmare, your dog would know you were coming home, if you texted him to say you were on the way, or does your dog not have a mobile phone? If he does not then not sure how. Has your dog put a transponder on you, I wonder?