Red Kites

Out to Weardley/Harewood on Monday to stretch our legs and enjoy yet another fine Red Kite display. Just what you need to blow the cobwebs away. At one point 10 Red Kites were in the air in front of us. You can read the latest on the Harewood Red Kite project in the Yorkshire Red Kite newsletter.

It wasn't until I downloaded these shots that I realised that this one is clearly tagged Yorkshire '17', which Ive reported.



You can just about make out six Red Kites in this shot.

Weardley Red Kites and Eccup

A short trip to Weardley saw the Red Kites in fine display. The afternoon light was murky and with the ISO cranked up our pics came out a little grainy but salvageable. Lovely to see the Red Kites energetically swooping and diving against the patchwork of fields, hedgerows and bare Oak trees. This field is a favourite with the Kites, full of sheep and mangelwurzel which presumably attracts plenty of small mammals too.

We watched a number of Kites engage in acrobatic aerial tussles where one or the other would roll upside down, drop and right itself with the greatest of ease time and time again.

The Red Kites regularly settled in a field occupied by sheep and a plentiful amount of mangelwurzel. Also present were a number of Pied Wagtail, over 30 in this field, busily bobbing around and unlike the Kites attracting the occasional interest of the resident sheep. We also spotted a couple of Twite in the field but too far away for a pic.

A little further up the road towards Eccup a fallow field held Lapwing 15, Curlew 5, Starling 40, Wood Pigeon 25, and three hares. Here's a pair of hares spotted at a distance. The Lapwing were keen to see off any crows that flew over the area so maybe they're marking this as potential breeding ground, it'll be interesting to keep an eye on it.

Red Kites at Weardley

The Red Kites were out in force yesterday afternoon in the skies around Weardley on the Harewood Estate, the site of the 1999 re-introduction project. To my mind you can never tire of watching these magnificent birds. Read more about the Yorkshire Red Kite project on Nigel Puckrin's website.

Weardley New Year's Day sightings

On New Year's Day, mid afternoon we drove out to Weardley, near Harewood. With the temperature a chilly 2 degrees & getting colder, the pathways were still icy & as a result we didn't wander far but still managed a few good sightings.

The Red Kites we're around in decent numbers & today we counted ten just in this area. This Red Kite was perched on a treetop surveying the area. Its tagged bird, the tag looks orange which I think means the bird was released in 2005.

In the nearby field a flock of sheep were getting stuck into mini-mountains of mangelwurzel & the field attracted a number of birds. Lapwing, Fieldfare, Jackdaws, Wood Pigeon, Blackbird, Great Tit and Robin hopped through the hedgerow. We noticed a flock of about 10 smaller birds feeding on the ground, I'm struggling to identify them so any suggestions would be appreciated.

Ive included this pic to give an idea of scale, two birds are just about visible to the left of the rear leg of the sheep.

A female Kestrel settled on a nearby telegraph pole.

On joining the Ebor Way footpath we realised that what we'd initially assumed to be one of the many Red Kites lacked the forked tail & had a far heavier appearance & it turned out to be a Buzzard, I didn't manage a pic but it was a good reminder to pay attention.