Picture perfect

AS a boy growing up in Surrey in the early ’80s the only real chance to see a Eurasian Hobby involved a long bike ride to Thursley Common or to hope for a chance sighting on the annual local YOC (Young Ornithologists’ Club for those too young to remember!) coach trip to Stodmarsh or Dungeness. Fast forward 40 years and it’s a totally different story: the species now breeds widely around Surrey and has spread northwards and westwards as far north as Aberdeenshire and Inverness.

Anthony Messenger found his first pair in his local Derbyshire area in 1990 and has studied the species ever since, devoting most of the summer months to trying to pin down the breeding sites and recording behaviour. This book is a fantastic testament to his and Richard Sales’s dedication.

The first thing that strikes you about this book is the photographs, not only the sheer number of them and the quality of the printing, but also the variety of subjects, with pictures of hobbies the like of which I have never seen before. From the stunning cover photo of a female at the nest feeding her chicks, the breeding cycle is followed through to fledging. There are some excellent images of the birds hunting their prey – you can even see the insects that are about to be snatched out of the air in some photos! I have heard of hobbies taking mammal prey, but this is the first time I have seen it recorded on camera. There is an excellent selection of prey species, with the photos of Four-spotted Chaser and White-faced Darters really standing out.

The opening chapter is in diary form and follows Messenger’s efforts at tracking down these elusive birds in Derbyshire over the last 30 years. Further chapters include those on diet, the breeding cycle, hunting, migration and population. The section on hunting in particular makes very good use of computer graphics to show flight patterns and so on;

I did find this a bit heavy going in places and had to read some parts a couple of times, but the rest of the text is very free flowing and easy to follow.

Eurasian Hobby has been studied a lot in Europe over the years and there are a lot of references and comparisons to these studies, with the chapter on movements quoting a recent 2021 study on Peregrine Falcon, which found a specific gene associated with migratory choice and longterm memory. Other recent work here and in Europe with satellite transmitters has revealed the routes and wintering areas of various populations and it was interesting to read a discussion on the pros and cons of this sort of technology.

The last chapter on population is both fascinating and sobering. The shooting lists from Scottish

estates in the 1800s show that birds were regularly killed there in small numbers and may even have bred at that time. Declining prey levels, especially hirundines, could be the cause for some

European countries reporting recent population falls, while a recent study in America has found a worrying rise in the levels of mercury in dragonfly species that if replicated on this side of the Atlantic could have a negative effect on hobbies here.

As always with a book like this there are little snippets that catch your eye. One for me was the fact that birds use old crows’ nests on electricity pylons a lot more in Europe due to their different design and to try to avoid Northern Goshawks nesting in local woodland!

In summary this is the best book I have read on Eurasian Hobby and anyone with the slightest interest in raptors or wants to learn more about this iconic species will want this on their bookshelf. Jeremy Gates