Red Kites

[saint-spoon]

Whilst away ruffin’ it over the weekend we were lucky enough to see a pair of red kites hunting over an old airfield in the New Forest; I feel quite fortunate that I spotted them and even more fortunate that they flew right over our heads. Also saw the usual array of chaffinch, goldfinch, mistle thrush, dunnock etc etc and of course the famous forest ponies. Down on the salt marshes around Hurst castle we saw ringed plovers and a wee brown thing that I have yet to identify but had a beautiful song, if I remember tonight I shall post a piccy.

[saint-spoon]

saying that i know that you guys don't particularly like photos so i might not bother.......

[wendy]

Don't you dare not post LOL
Wendy

[sharon the chauffeur]

sorry saint spoon i added a photo today ,all photos appreciated

[Jo]

Last summer I was fortunate enough to see a pair of red kites on the farm land at the back of my house.

They were there for several weeks, and every morning I would go out with my binoculars and watch them .

There is something about the kites that makes my hairs stand on end every time I see them. They are truly magnificent.

You can imagine my delight when I saw four effortlessly sweeping the sky whilst driving a few months back. I have to say, I pulled over to watch them.

I do believe (call me strange), that there is something spiritual about these birds of prey. They give you a real sense of peace and privilege when you are lucky enough to spot them.

I am so glad the Red Kite population is now improving after the persecution they have suffered in the past.

For those of you who want to know where to start looking for Red Kites goto: http://www.chilternsaonb.org/caring/red ... watch.html.

Happy spotting
Jo

[Jo]

Sorry just checked the link, not working too well.

This one is better: http://www.chilternsaonb.org/caring/red_kites.html

[saint-spoon]

thanks for that Jo.... sorry for not posting any pictures of cute forest ponies etc but my home pc is playing up and i haven't had time at work.... not that i would dare squander my working day on non-work related tomfoolery...

[Dragon]

We often see Red Kites in the "park"* opposite our farm; they're generally being mobbed by the huge population of lapwings that live there! Beautiful to watch, though, and a welcome distraction from weeding. They were only introduced last year - the website about the reintroduction programme can be found here: http://www.northernkites.org.uk/

*actually used to be a landfill

[Mo]

Aren't you lucky having lapwings in flocks. In Cheshire we get the occasional pair, but no flocks any more.

[Dragon]

Aren't you lucky having lapwings in flocks. In Cheshire we get the occasional pair, but no flocks any more.

Really? We've got hundreds of the things, I just assumed they were fairly common! Having said that, we're really well sorted for birds, having spent the last ten years or so making the place as bird-friendly as possible, planting trees, ivy, encouraging insects, putting out bird boxes, food, etc. We're chuffed at getting a pair of little owls nesting on our "blasted oak" (hit by lightening eight years ago), which is a first for us, and I've got bluetits, goldfinches and bats all living in my roof. We've also got our first pair of woodpeckers this year, so might have to reinforce the nestboxes.

[Mo]

I remember flocks of lapwings. I think their nesting routines have been disrupted by the practise of planting cereals in winter instead of spring.
They are on the RSPB's Amber List. Lapwings on rspb site, rspb's Landscapes for Lapwings project

[saint-spoon]

Aren't you lucky having lapwings in flocks. In Cheshire we get the occasional pair, but no flocks any more.

HMS Sultan in Gosport (where I currently work) has got quite a lot of playing fields and other grassland; we get loads of lapwings during the colder months along with a range of geese and allsorts. MOD land is quite often like that; it’s a pity that it’s planned to close in a few years and one imagines that the land will be sold to developers and all the lovely habitat will be lost forever. It’s situated adjacent to a nature reserve which means that we get migration of everything from red dear to the occasional buzzard (not bad for a predominantly urban area). I see a green woodpecker (or five) pretty much every day and if I’m lucky something more exotic such as a little egret.

[saint-spoon]

As promised, some pictures of red kites.







This is our pitch before everyone else turned up; I would thoroughly recommend arriving the day before the bank holiday, it’s just so tranquil; unfortunately the kids from the next group of families kept kicking their football into our tent, they did say sorry but you can’t help but feel that they didn’t mean it because they kept doing it, about every two minutes.






a ringed plover defending her nest.



And finally some New Forest Ponies (a bit ah)

[wendy]

Thank you they were worth the wait.
Lovely pictures.
Wendy

[Mo]

We quite often see buzzards, and hear them (sound like flying cats)