WOW! - a pair of red kite A sighting in Hastings today 17th

[Nature's Babe]

Blue skies here, the church bells ringing and to add to our pleasure we had a visit from a pair of red kites late afternoon today, they are so graceful,
magnificent birds, they flew above for about half an hour !

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdgui ... index.aspx

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Natures Babe, we have a Red Kite about here, although it has about a third of the feathers missing from the middle of one wing, it is still very graceful. When i first saw it, i wouldn't have thought it would be capable of any sought of flight.

[Primrose]

We started to see the odd red kite around here about three years ago and I'm astonished that despite two really harsh winters when food must have been incredibly scarce for them that their numbers have increased considerably. Now every day we see them regularly and they're so graceful.

I know somebody who has a large garden and feeds them with chicken pieces and would love to have that kind of very close encounter with them. I tried to tempt them down in our smallish garden with chicken scraps, but am afraid that the magpies and crows always got in first! We often see them circling over nearby lanes looking for road kill, so perhaps that is something to try. Meanwhile I have to content myself with being in the garden listening to them call out to each other, which is truly a wonderful and very distinctive sound.

[Colin_M]

I'm very jealous of you all.

We have the odd buzzard flying over, but I love Kites and have to travel up into Wales to get shots like this:

Kite.jpg (166.07 KiB) Viewed 4357 times

and this...

Kite - 2.jpg (68.48 KiB) Viewed 4357 times

This isn't to complain, as Wales is a beautiful country. However could I ask Primrose, OH and NB that when they next see one of their Kites, could you mention to them that SW England is worth visiting too

[oldherbaceous]

Morning Colin, i'm sure they will work there way down there over the next couple of years, we have only had them here for several years now.

Wonderful pictures by the way.

[Primrose]

Yes, I'm sure they'll be spreading out now that they seem to have re-established themselves firmly as apart from anything else, as numbers grow they'll need to expand their territories in the search for food, as otherwise there will be too much competition.

The same thing has happened with the green parakeet population. I believe they first started off around Surrey where legend has it that a flock of them were escapees from a film studio in Shepperton when somebody accidentally left open some doors. Whether or not that's true I don't know, but over the years they seem to have established themselves all over the Thames Valley, which is perhaps a little surprising seeing that they're really a warm climate bird. In the snowy weather we had them coming down to feed in our garden but that's quite rare. They're normally to be seen in small flocks high up in the trees around here.

[Johnboy]

Hi Colin,
It would seem that Red Kite have been sniffing out Somerset for a couple of years or so.
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/so ... te.html#cr
Here in Herefordshire they have become quite commonplace.
I see then quite frequently and I get a complete buzz every time I see them.
We have them overhead here many times a year and the last about two weeks ago and that was a pair.
I was hoping that they were going to nest here as they have been nesting locally for the last couple of years and I thought this might be a second pair. Have not heard anything on the local birdwatching front so I guess I will have to settle for more in the future.
A really magnificent photograph Colin I must congratulate you!
If you do travel to Mid-Wales the road leading to the RSPB Dinas Reserve out of Rhandirmywn to Ystrad-ffyn and if you access the mountains to the East there are some old Roman silver mines and you can climb high enough to take photographs from above the Kites which is something you normally cannot do. This part of Wales is wonderful for a holiday at the upper end of the Towey River to Llyn Brianne Reservoir. I can also recommend the old coaching road from Rayader around the Elan Valley Dams to Devils bridge and if you then travel south from there on the A44 there is a Kite feeding station and there is also a feeding station in Rhayader itself. The one in The Devils Bridge area is far more picturesque though. You will also see several not rare but mainly unnoticed birds between Rhayader and Devils Bridge such as Wheatear, Stonechat and Whinchat and on the reservoirs there are normally Goosanders and other waterfowl. I do this run twice a year for sheer joy and end up in Aberystwyth and if you travel down the coast out of the built-up area you can see a variety of Sea Birds and Sea Creatures. Last year I actually saw an really enormous Basking Shark (not flying!) quite close in-shore. I wondered why the Seals came out of the water very close to me and although the Basking Shark will not harm the Seals they do not take any chances.
Now if that doesn't at least tempt you I do not know what will!
I dislike having to admit it but the inland areas of Wales are really something to behold as are some of the coastal panoramas.
JB.

[Monika]

We get the occasional red kite over the village, including the allotment, but going just a bit further east where they were released some years ago at Harewood House near Leeds and have bred and spread out since then, it is quite common to drive over the moors and get red kite swooping down right in front of the car. Quite scary actually.

I do love seeing them soar high above, as I do buzzards as well. We also have a pair of peregrines on a quarry slope near the allotment, their call sounding like quacking ducks. My prize bird of prey around here is the merlin, beautiful to watch but, unfortunately, rather shy.

[Colin_M]

Thank you to OH and Johnboy for your kind comments.
These photos took a bit of time to get (and several hundred were discarded to arrive at a few decent ones).

Your suggestion of other sites in Wales is very interesting JB. I'm glad to see a reference to them being seen in Somerset too. You'd expect them to spread out, but apparently most Kites rarely move more than 20 miles from where they were hatched.

[Nature's Babe]

Colin, wonderful photographs, thank you for sharing them. I enjoyed reading all your comments.

[sally wright]

Dear All,
I saw a couple of these as I was travelling along the M40 to the NEC on Thursday. They are huge things. It was like a scene out of a spaghetti western. I also saw an egret and some mandarin ducks on the Bedford levels (from the train)as I was coming back home today. I had plenty of time for birdwatching today as some toad had nicked the signal wires between Manea and Ely.
So that is three new ones for my personal list. I don't actually go places to watch birds I just like to keep my eyes peeled as I go out and about.
Regards Sally Wright.

[Nature's Babe]

Another sighting today, we visited the Conquest Hospital on the Ridge at Hastings, to see my mother. It has a large wildlife pond at the rear and woodland close. As we left I looked up and saw a red Kite riding the thermals above the ridge and the hospital, surprising, and it made my day !