In raptures over raptors

A RAPIER-shaped falcon wings over an ancient landscape awakening visions of Anglo-Saxon warriors with swords and battle-axes, thwarting a cruel conqueror.

- Stuart Winter

Too fast for the human eye to follow, the awesome 'cast' of hobbies - what a dreary collective noun for these sleekest of raptors - were scything through a miasma of dragonflies in the spring sunshine.

Up to a dozen falcons had taken to clear blue skies over the RSPB's Ouse Fen reserve near Earith in Cambridgeshire for an insect banquet after a gruelling migration from African wintering grounds.