Local sportsman, John Rich, reports seeing a Hobby (Falco subbuteo) flying over Little Thetford last week. This is unusual as it is normally an April through September visitor, migrating from Africa, Europe and Central and East Asia. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds records only two thousand two hundred breeding pairs in the United Kingdom.

The Birds of Britain suggests this Kestrel sized bird, which settles in isolated clumps of trees around heath and farmland, can fly “… at a speed approaching 100 mph”. The Hobby feeds by transferring insects, often dragonfly, from its feet to its mouth during flight, hunting late into the evening.

See also a BBC wildlife article on the Hobby and a recent BBC report commenting on increasing numbers of birds of prey.

Peter Adolph at first attempted to register the trademark “Hobby” for his 1946 table football game. When this was refused, he settled on the Linnaean species name, subbuteo.