Red Kites on the hill.

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 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.