Red Kite Country

We had a few days, wet days away in Wales last week. OK camping in mid Wales until the site got a bit too wet.

We went looking for Pied Flycatcher in the Elan Valley a glorious area (even in drizzle) but were unsucessful, however we did see good numbers of Common Redstarts.

At night it poured with rain but we did get a good day last Tuesday and went for the first time to Gigrin Farm, the first of the now three feeding stations in Wales.

We were not disappointed and in decent light saw around thirty to forty Red Kites as well as Ravens and at least three Common Buzzards which fed for ages on the ground.

The Kites are fantastic birds and awesome to watch, sweeping in to grab food from other birds, passing food, and manoeuvring position in the sky.

Red Kite country, well mid Wales I believe is the one area the birds were never lost from although numbers got very low. You now see them on your travels around the mid Wales area.

The really good thing about the camp site was the presence of Buzzards and the occasional Red Kite. The Buzzards were heard overhead a lot even at 04:00am!

I have lots of pics and will make another posting with also the ground based Buzzards.