Monday 19th and Tuesday 20th October .
Location – The Chiltern Hills ,Oxfordshire
‘Lets go find a Kite’ ( Of the Red Type )
A booking to speak to the RSPB local group at Didcot on this Monday evening took me to this
part of Britain . The topic was to be ‘ Costa Rica’-Pura Vida .
So with an overnight stay already booked in Oxford I decided to spend some time both viewing
and hopefully photographing these wonderful birds. As it turned out the weather on the Monday
deteriorated into rain, rain and more rain. But a trip round to check out the sites proved to be
invaluable .
On the Tuesday morning with a substantial improvement in the weather I set off for Watlington
some 30 minutes away on the fringes of the Chilterns. The Autumn colour in the trees had to be
seen to be believed , with the maples and beeches at their very best . It soon became apparent that
this was’ THE’ area with Kites already hugging the hillside in their characteristic flying pattern .
I first chose to view down a tree lined valley having put out a local road killed pheasant to see if
this would attract them , it did to some degree but not to get them down to the ground , it was
however very misty until mid morning . I then decided to go out onto Watlington Common which
is owned and managed by the National Trust ( NT ) , this proved to be very fruitful as the birds
were hugging the hillside with the local up draughts allowing their languid style of flight to be
observed . It also occurred to me just how much the birds use their tail as an in flight rudder.
Some of the birds were showing signs of moult , with one particular individual looking in outline
only like a swallow tailed kite from Costa Rica featured as an image featured in the previous
nights presentation . With several NT benches placed on the hillside the weather and the birds
made for a most enjoyable day with distant views of Oxford and Didcot for good measure .
From a photography perspective a blue sky background seemed to show off the birds to best
effect and it really was most important to watch the birds to get an idea of their behaviour in
order to anticipate their movements before tracking them through the air before squeezing the
shutter button .
Several other species were seen with numerous buzzards , a single stonechat , a small party of
redwings , linnets , bullfinches and several species of tits . A rather interesting sight and sound
was of a Raven overhead adding further evidence to the theory that they are spreading evermore
westwards in their range. Of particular note were the mature specimens of Juniper which the NT
are working hard to preserve in this part of the Chilterns.
The Chilterns really is the place to see Red Kites, it is now their stronghold after being released
locally in 1989 . Overall they are expanding their range from here, although there are still sadly
one or two isolated cases of persecution due to poisoning. Another good site to observe them
locally is at Aston Rowant national nature reserve just 6 miles down the road from Watlington
END