any problems (or to build a decent snowman) but just enough to cover the ground and make everywhere look very pretty.As a result, this morning we drove to Otley through Wharfedale, in order to admire the snowy scenery. The drive out was very impressive, Christmas card views, but the sun was so strong that by the time we drove home, the only surviving snow was on north facing slopes and in the shadows of hedgerows and walls. Nevertheless, the warm sun had obviously created some thermals and the journey was made remarkable by the eight red kites riding the aforementioned thermals, within a 2 mile stretch of road.
Wharfedale is a good spot for red kite because nearby Harewood House was the site of a recent release scheme to re-introduce red kites back into Yorkshire. None of the birds I saw had wing tags, so were either
long-surviving birds from the scheme or the offspring of the released birds. Anyway, my eight wasn't a bad count but the warden once reliably informed me that his personal best was an amazing twenty seven birds, all in flight together over one of the winter roosts. Wow.
2 comments:
Absolutely, you have excellent compositional sense, and really get the feeling of space and empty sky (especailly in the red kite pic).
We have lots of kites here, and buzzards...Andy calls to the latter, imitating the mewling cry they have. He's far too good at it, and I'm sure one day he's going to get dive bombed by one...they are huge close up, one went across our path when we were biking down a dirt track, it was only a few metres away - I don't know who was more frightened...probably it was!
I regularly see the Red Kites that hang around the M40 in Oxfordshire. I have seen a huge group circling over the fields near the motorway. As I was driving it was a bit hard to count how many there were but it was a lot! Probably about 30 I say. Amazing birds. Nice snow picture you did.
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