I record both Common Buzzards and Sparrowhawks several times each year from my flat and on my adjacent St. Nicholas Church local patch site but, despite them being recorded not far away over Langdon Hills, I had yet to record a Red Kite .... until today!
My long wait for this species ended at 10:55 a.m. this morning when I saw a Red Kite fly over the flats hotly pursued by 2 Herring Gulls. By the time that I had worked out what was going on and got my camera out, the Red Kite was well away so I only got a very distant and heavily cropped record shot.
Photo: Red Kite
Given that the bird flew west, it is also going down as a new site record for my St. Nicholas Church local patch site!
When I first started birding as a young person, the Red Kite was an extremely rare species confined to just a few remote areas in mid-Wales. Due to re-introduction schemes and natural range expansion with the increasing population, it is now very easy to see Red Kites in various parts of the country and it has been on my Essex list for some years (usually spotted from the M25 or M11!).
My record shot of this morning's Red Kite is not exactly brilliant so here are some better photos of Red Kites that I have taken in mid-Wales in recent years ....
#DefendNature
excellent sighting! (and wonderful pics from mid-Wales)
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