The Lesser Kestrels of Matera #8
It’s five o’clock in the morning and she’s calling immediately outside our window. I think she wants her mate. The tone is insistent and demanding. There’s a female Lesser Kestrel just outside our bedroom window in Matera.
![Lesser Kestrel - Matera - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Matera-The-Hall-of-Einar-7027-2-725x483.jpg)
The Puffin Whisperer has definitely booked the right room. We’re surrounded by Lesser Kestrels and don’t even have to move to see them close up.
![Lesser Kestrel - Matera - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Matera-The-Hall-of-Einar-7027.jpg)
Isn’t she beautiful? I particularly like one of their defining characteristics which means you can tell it’s a Lesser Kestrel and not a Common Kestrel; the white fingernails.
![Lesser Kestrel - Matera - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Matera-The-Hall-of-Einar-7068-725x483.jpg)
I shuffle up to another window and can see a dozen in the skies above us. A few of them fly past the cathedral tower:
![Lesser Kestrel - Matera - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Matera-The-Hall-of-Einar-7382.jpg)
There’s a male in distinctive plumage at eye-level to us.
![Lesser Kestrel - Matera - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Matera-The-Hall-of-Einar-7132-725x483.jpg)
The TV aerials dotted around make perfect perches.
![Lesser Kestrel - Matera - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Matera-The-Hall-of-Einar-7309.jpg)
Then something very exciting happens; a male arrives with an Italian Wall Lizard in its grasp:
![Lesser Kestrel - Matera - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Matera-The-Hall-of-Einar-7088-725x483.jpg)
The lizard has long-since stopped moving and is gripped firmly behind the head.
![Lesser Kestrel - Matera - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Matera-The-Hall-of-Einar-7158-725x483.jpg)
He lands on the wall in front of our small terrace.
![Lesser Kestrel - Matera - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Matera-The-Hall-of-Einar-7175-725x483.jpg)
He’s not about to let go of it. I suspect it’s a gift for a female.
![Lesser Kestrel - Matera - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Matera-The-Hall-of-Einar-7185-725x483.jpg)
This female is on the rooftop immediately opposite our room. I love the colours of the lichen and flowers which surround her:
![Lesser Kestrel - Matera - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Matera-The-Hall-of-Einar-7352-725x483.jpg)
The males have such smart plumage.
![Lesser Kestrel - Matera - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Matera-The-Hall-of-Einar-7383-725x483.jpg)
It’s not just TV aerials on which they perch. This is my favourite composition of a Lesser Kestrel on the weather vane:
![Lesser Kestrel - Matera - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Matera-The-Hall-of-Einar-7298.jpg)
We have all day to enjoy them, and a cold beer on the terrace in the late afternoon. Perfect.
More Lesser Kestrels in Matera
![Lesser Kestrel - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Lesser-Kestrel-The-Hall-of-Einar-28-200x300.jpg)
![Lesser Kestrel - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Lesser-Kestrel-The-Hall-of-Einar-19-300x200.jpg)
![A Wilder Italian Life 2019](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Wilder-Italian-Life-2019-300x193.jpg)
![Lesser Kestrel - Matera - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Matera-The-Hall-of-Einar-7700-300x200.jpg)
![Lesser Kestrel - Matera - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Matera-The-Hall-of-Einar-7582-300x300.jpg)
![Lesser Kestrel - Matera - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Matera-The-Hall-of-Einar-6905-300x200.jpg)
![Lesser Kestrel - Matera - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Matera-The-Hall-of-Einar-6769-300x200.jpg)
![Lesser Kestrel - Matera - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Matera-The-Hall-of-Einar-7312-300x200.jpg)
![Lesser Kestrel - Matera - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Lesser-Kestrel-Matera-1018-300x200.jpg)