What birds or bird have you seen today – communal thread, I hope!

Had a drive out to Martin Mere, lots of birdies, but only managed to process of few this evening from the 500 I took..

Lapwing...

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These were taken yesterday evening. Apparently, people are shooting Red Kites around where this was so Bestbeloved says I am not to say where. Not the best shots but I was taken by surprise and the bird was a fair way off. They have been cropped quite a bit.
Red Kite-4.jpgRed Kite-5.jpgRed Kite.jpg
 
Few from this morning before the gloom turned to rain. :(

Juvenile Mute Swan

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Female Pochard

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Redshank

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Bewick's Swan drinking

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john.margetts said:
Apparently, people are shooting Red Kites around where this was
Click to expand...
I know ( well knew, we belonged to the same falconry club ) the two people largely responsible for the re-introduction program "In a certain area" not too far from me.
This would have been the early - mid 90's.

Within 5 years they were saying that the kites were far more successful than they ever imagined, and they for-saw a cull in the next 5-10 years if numbers
continued to expand in the same way...

Grey squirrels of the air :(
 
Cobra said:
I know ( well knew, we belonged to the same falconry club ) the two people largely responsible for the re-introduction program "In a certain area" not too far from me.
This would have been the early - mid 90's.

Within 5 years they were saying that the kites were far more successful than they ever imagined, and they for-saw a cull in the next 5-10 years if numbers
continued to expand in the same way...

Grey squirrels of the air :(
Click to expand...

We have them in Middlesex now, they've come down the Chilterns, into Buckinghamshire/Berkshire, and just over a week a go a pair were quartering the gardens where I live, not far from Heathrow. Lovely sight to see too. Can't get enough of these fabulous birds.
 
Jelster said:
Can't get enough of these fabulous birds.
Click to expand...
I'm about 20 miles from the release site, as the crow, sorry Red kite flies, I get them here too, at roof top height. ( between 4 & 6, that's numbers not time btw :D )
The furthest north I've seen them is Peterborough.

One Landfill site I worked, not far from the M40 and close to Beaconsfield, ( and not a million miles from the release site) one day I counted, ( the best I could) 60 riding the same thermal.
Early morning the small copse at this site looked like a rookery while they were waiting for the sun to warm up the ground, waiting for the thermals...

I've nothing against them, don't get me wrong, but I do wonder if the native carrion feeders are suffering?
 
Several years ago now I was driving to Oxfordshire on business and started seeing red kites in and around the trees along the road. At first I was really excited as I'd only ever seen the occasional single bird up in Scotland. I'd never seen one up close as I did that day. There were just more and more of them, until after a couple of miles I was seeing red kites, but no other birds at all............... I don't know what effect, if any, they actually have on other birds.
 
Jelster said:
To be fair, I thought they were native, originally.
Click to expand...
Yes they **died out, and the re-introduction stock is from Spanish origin...

It didn't realise it was that long ago TBH ...
From the web.
**As the kite became rarer, it became a target for taxidermists and egg collectors, whose actions hastened the species towards extinction.
Consequently, the red kite became extinct in England in 1871 and in Scotland in 1879.
 
Cobra said:
I know ( well knew, we belonged to the same falconry club ) the two people largely responsible for the re-introduction program "In a certain area" not too far from me.
This would have been the early - mid 90's.

Within 5 years they were saying that the kites were far more successful than they ever imagined, and they for-saw a cull in the next 5-10 years if numbers
continued to expand in the same way...

Grey squirrels of the air :(
Click to expand...

Get a lot of red kites here now, usually see a pair circling the area every day, have become such a common site I suppose I don’t tend to notice them anymore
 
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