Visiting hobbies
Every spring hundreds of thousands of birds migrate to Britain. In addition to the usual swallows and cuckoos, there's a bird of prey that makes the long journey from Africa too - the hobby. Mike Dilger meets Phil Holmes of Shapwick Heath reserve to watch them. The number of hobbies here is tremendous - Phil counted 35 last week. Why are they here in such large numbers? The answers are geography and food. They migrate across southern Britain and this reserve has lots of food for them. They are a really fast bird. Like the peregrine falcon they can do 100 miles an hour in level flight. They have to be fast to catch things like dragonflies which they eat in flight. Mike and Phil count 50 hobbies on their walk, and there may be more elsewhere on the reserve.
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