Wednesday, 3 May 2017

Pitstone Hill - Red Kites

I had been watching Hares in the bare fields to the South of Pitstone Hill throughout the whole of April, but the activity had dropped off over the past week, leaving me with only long distance photos.  So on May the 1st, I took my long lens with me on an evening walk with the dog on a day that could be best described as 'April showers', with bright sunshine and heavy short showers.  This with the hope to capture a decent shot of these mammals between showers.  However not a Hare in sight for the first time for weeks.
 
Disappointed I kept my eye open for other wildlife, not expecting much as the dog was running around off the lead disturbing any wildlife, including the odd rabbit.  At some point I looked up and coming towards me and relatively low to the ground was a red kite.  I quickly swung my heavy lens up and was lucky enough to capture this image of a Red Kite almost directly above me, before it flew further down the back of the ridge, joining another Red Kite.


Later, retracing my steps, with the sun now behind clouds, the pair could be seen again at a distance...

 
....and getting closer, one had settled on a fence post whilst the other flew around....


...with the sitting bird keeping a watchful eye open on its aerial  partner.


I got within about 50 yards, and concentrated on the Red Kite sitting on the post...

 
.... before the dog disturbed it, and it flew off at an angle to me, now looking straight at me as a threat, enabling me to get these images.

I had got lucky after weeks of trying to get closer photos of these beautiful and graceful birds.  A long post with many images of the Kite, hopefully worthy of publishing on the internet.

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