Absolutely Amazed.

[Chrissy]

I took part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch today. It's an annual garden bird counting event, and I do it every year. It's also a good way of seeing those birds that I like to photograph.

As we have had some heavy frosts, and I have seen a Red Kite overhead, I have occasionally placed a raw chicken wing on the lawn and was thrilled that it sometimes swoops down and picks it up before the crow or magpie get it.

I had virtually given up all hope of him swooping down today, so I came onto the PC. As soon as I sat down in front of it, my OH yelled from the kitchen, "look out of the window!" So I quickly looked out in time to see the Red Kite actually landed in the middle of my lawn. A first ever!

I am thoroughly made-up. :)

[Neo]

;) a great way to start the day

[manoeuver]

Big birds are pretty sweet.

[MY63]

I went to an event at Harewood hose in Yorkshire where Red kites were released in 1999 there are hundreds there now
Apparently they really like bacon did you manage to get any pictures.

[jar]

Outside work we had built an Osprey nest platform but the first year none chose it as a nesting site. The next spring I suggested to all the biologists that we circle the platform and hold a flounder fling in the hope that some might land on top the platform.

For some reason they all claimed I did not have the proper credentials and so ignored my suggestion but I still dream some night of that great circle of marine biologist flinging flounders skywards.

[Holsworth]

That must have been an amazing sight! I used to have a bird table out the back of my old office. We're quite in the middle of nowhere so had some lovely birds turn up. I even saw a Little Owl under one of the trees once, funny little critters! We would occasionally have a sparrow hawk appear for a snack at the bird table!

[Chrissy]

I didn't manage to take a photo of it today, nor at any time when it has swooped down to grad a chicken wing. However, I do have a photo of it that I can't currently manage to upload as an image from Flickr:

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2589/5833258164_f525ea1f21_s.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/9TsYqC)Red Kite (https://flic.kr/p/9TsYqC)


I'm not sure if this is the best way to download an image or not, but if you click on it you will be able to see it.

[Cob]

I wonder if it's the one I see here from time to time - when he's slumming it in beautiful downtown Bracknell. It was just last week that he put on a splendid display of effortless flying right over the local bus stop.

Cob

[carlc]

I wonder if it's the one I see here from time to time - when he's slumming it in beautiful downtown Bracknell. It was just last week that he put on a splendid display of effortless flying right over the local bus stop.

Cob

Red Kites are one of the most successful reintroductions/breeding programmes in the UK at present.

Yours will be all your own birdie.

[MY63]

That is a very impressive photograph the 100 / 400 is a fantastic lens I have always been fascinated by birds of prey since I was a child my friend lives near me and gets a Sparrow Hawk in his garden regularly all I get is pigeons :) thanks for sharing your picture

[Chrissy]

That is a very impressive photograph the 100 / 400 is a fantastic lens I have always been fascinated by birds of prey since I was a child my friend lives near me and gets a Sparrow Hawk in his garden regularly all I get is pigeons :) thanks for sharing your picture

Thank you. If you feed garden birds a varied diet in your garden, then any local Sparrowhawk doesn't take too long to learn where they are

[Flounder]

Oh, I was walking along the White Cart today and found a big black cormorant drying its wings on the opposite bank of the river. It wasn't the least bit intimidated by my presence, just cocked its head like a grumpy Pterodactyl.

[Empty_of_Clouds]

During my early years in a small UK city we used to get all sorts of birds in the garden, despite that it was an urban area. One day I saw a flash of movement and a sparrowhawk skimmed the border hedges and dropped on a wood pigeon that was quietly having a drink at our birdbath. I thought it's never going to get that thing away, but sure enough, it did actually carry the pigeon over the hedge and into a neghbouring garden for a leisurely feed.

I miss that here in New Zealand. There are lots of native birds, all quite interesting, but I miss seeing hovering kestrels, buzzards soaring over the wilds of Dartmoor, Peregrines stooping on the cliffs of Cornwall, and a whole myriad of others. You know they have a magpie here? It's really a black and white crow-like bird introduced from Australia. Nothing at all like the British magpie. And I miss Jays too!

[Chrissy]

I thought I was the only person who liked jays. My best friend's partner is a farmer who rears pheasants and has shoot parties, so they hate jays.

I love to see Kestrels hovering along grass verges next to roads, but I haven't seen one in my garden. We regularly see Buzzards though. And a Peregrine is a bird I would love to see overhead.

If you look at my Flickr photos you will see the pictures I took when a Sparrowhawk twice caught a Starling in my garden. It's a bit gruesome, but birds of prey have to eat too. I have never seen the "Sprawk" that visits my garden take a Wood Pigeon. I'm sure that would have to be a female bird, and the one I have seen is a male. In "Sprawks" the female of the species is larger than the male.

[MY63]

I knew I had some pictures of a red kite somewhere funnily enough in my flickr account in a folder called birds :) I though you might like to see a close up,

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8680/16385608891_8758163dcd_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/qXWwE8)688eb517-1186-43c3-a034-e9508452c02e (https://flic.kr/p/qXWwE8) by my0771 (https://www.flickr.com/people/47080473@N07/), on Flickr

[Flounder]

This is now my official Favourite Thing On The Internet.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TJaNDBI87s