Brothers In Arms

According to his various news feeds, Andy Rouse one of the worlds leading wildlife photographers, this week embarked on a new project for 2020 Vision...
The criteria is for Andy to photograph Red Kite and on Monday he paid the first of several planned visits to Gigrin Farm in Wales.
Gigrin is a wonderful place that myself and of course hundreds of other photographers visit every year and seeing a few of Andy's images from the day prompted me to look in my archives at shots that I have taken at this location.

It's not just Red Kites that are attracted to the Gigrin feeding station, there are also good numbers of Common Buzzard that wouldn't pass on the opportunity of a free meal also, so I thought today I'd post something a little different from the usual close-up and show you a shot of the two species flying in tandem over the landscape...

Common Buzzard

Ask most people who don't have more than a passing interest in ornithology, what is Britain's most numerous bird of prey and you would have to excuse them for saying it would be the Common Kestrel.
It often comes as a huge surprise for these people when you tell them in fact it is the Common Buzzard.

It's also very surprising just how many people don't even know that the UK is home to Buzzards and a lot of people seem to have this childhood image of Buzzards circling the dead or dying, just like in the old Westerns!

Buzzards were persecuted just like many other Raptors in the 1800's and the UK population faced extinction.
They made a comeback in the 20th century but again faced a major threat to their survival in the 1960's due to farmland pesticides that were making the birds infertile.
The banning of such pesticides has meant a population boom since then and British Buzzards now number over 40,000 pairs.
You're likely to spot Buzzards in just about every habitat these days and one reason for their success is their excellent hunting skills.
No small animal or bird is safe from the grasp of these superb predators and a few weeks back, I watched a Buzzard make light work of a young Rabbit...

So the future looks rosey for the beautiful Common Buzzard and land owners are now beginning to understand the benefits of having these splendid birds around.

After all, I guess you could regard them as natures Gamekeepers...

Red Kites

Yesterday my wife and I took a 260 mile round trip to Gigrin Farm, Powys in Wales to photograph Red Kites.

We left home just after 9am and had a pleasant drive through North Wales down to Powys taking in some beautiful Welsh scenery.

The weather was sunny although very cold and the remnants of a light overnight snowfall were still visible through much of the journey.

We arrived early so parked the car a couple of miles down the road from the farm, where we scanned the hills hoping for our first glimpse of these incredible birds and it wasn't long before we spotted a pair high above the rocks.

After a bite to eat we arrived at the farm to witness about a dozen or so Kites circling in the distance while the Buzzards, Ravens and Rooks were already at the feeding station eagerly waiting.

Feeding time at Gigrin is at 2pm prompt and by the time the farmer had arrived on his meat filled tractor the sky was filled with Raptors...Who says birds can't tell the time!

The birds seemed to wait patiently while the farmer shoveled the meat all around the ground and as soon as he'd finished the show began!

200 Red Kite competed with a couple of dozen Buzzards as well as Corvid's and even a Grey Heron for the spoils!

The aerial displays were magical with the Kites performing all wonder of mid-air maneuvers...Swooping down to scoop food from the ground and never once landing.

The Buzzards on the other hand were more than happy to stay grounded and gorge as much meat as possible!