Thursday 25 May 2017

Incredible Red Kite passage - another 46+ birds

The exceptional number of Red Kites passing by here continued this morning; Mike Hill saw 15 before I even stepped outside to have a look! My first glance to the sky yielded a single Red Kite flying over the house and this was quickly followed by a group of 7 at 08:50 then another 2. By 09:00 Mike had seen 26+ to my 10 and he was further W than me so I'd missed a minimum of 16 by this time, presumably going over at different latitudes. Another house viewing was booked so I had to leave the home watching spot; the A3052 just E of Colyford seemed like a good bet to try next as you can see wide areas both N & S. I gave it until 10:35 and saw a further 14 bringing my total up to 24. Most of the birds from here drifted over Colyford rather than Seaton so it makes me wonder how many we didn't see; there must have been a few passing out of view earlier. This was confirmed when Dad said he had 2 over his place in Colyton (NW corner); I wouldn't have seen these or the 4 Phil reported on Twitter at 10:36, just after I left. This gives a minimum count of 46 but I suspect it would have been a few more. Let's wait for the reports to see just how many are seen in Cornwall.

Unlike yesterday I had the 'birding' lens with me so the pics are a bit closer, although shooting into the Sun was far from ideal! Here are a couple of pics:



Right, back to work!


2 comments: