Red Kites on the hill.
A country hideaway....
The title of this blog post may give things away, "Red Kites on the hill" I had been put on to a location in Oxfordshire were a hill has a valley either side of it, the way the land has been formed gives a natural "updraft" for the Kites to hover upon to hunt.
Arriving at the location, no birds were present, but I had been told, wait until 9.30am - strange - well more or less around that time the birds started to appear out of nowhere. Choosing a place to set up giving me the sun coming in over my left shoulder was perfect.
A number of times, I lost count of the number of birds that were in the air, hovering, swooping, diving and hunting, action taking place all me constantly.
I was getting hungry now, breakfast had been hours since, but I was mindful, I had been told watch your sandwiches, they will swoop to try and take them, they did twice, when you see a adult Red Kite diving towards you with a wingspan of around 5 feet you duck, this I had to do twice.
You can see from the image above, they were very successful at hunting, over the course of the summer, I visited this location a number of times, each time coming away with some fantastic images, on one occasion, a good friend of mine accompanied me, he to was successful and likewise, enthralled with the action.
Condition's allowing, this is on the cards for visits this coming summer.
Until the next time...
