From the Field

December 2009 - kite storm

I doubt if there is a more majestic bird in England than the red kite. Fortunately, after years of decline and with the help of some new breeding stock from mainland europe, their populations have recovered dramatically. Without a doubt Gigrin farm has played a major part in that success and the owner has been feeding these magnificent birds since there were just a few living near to his farm.

Nowadays, the population is huge and feeding time is a spectacle not to be missed. I visited it today with fellow photographer Des Ong and even before we arrived, we saw one or two sailing serenely above the snow-covered welsh hills. Although feeding time was still an hour away, birds were drifting in from the surrounding countryside and gathering in the trees.

As soon as the tractor was started up, birds began circling above the field in some numbers and quite clearly we weren’t going to struggle finding subjects, but as soon as the first shovelful of meat hit the grass, the sky was filled with an absolute blizzard of kites. I should think there were a couple of hundred wheeling around and diving spectacularly to snatch food from the ground. Unlike the buzzards, they seem reluctant to land, but they didn’t really need to as they had no trouble picking it up on the wing.

It was not just kites that came in for a meal. There were plenty of buzzards as well, and they had their work cut out keeping an assortment of crows, rooks and ravens at bay while they bolted down the beef off-cuts that must make such a luxurious change from road-kill rabbit.

It might seem that photographing these kites would be easy, but it wasn’t by any means. As if keeping the focus on a passing bird wasn’t hard enough, the exposure difference between an alternating background of sky and dark trees meant that when I did get a sharp image it was often either over or under exposed. It takes a lot of concentration and not a little luck to get everything right, but a few worked anyway.

But these birds are spectacularly agile in the air and the rewards are very satisfying. After a couple of hours trying to get some frame-filling shots, we were back on the road looking for some thing different. We had a couple of half-chances from the roadside as the sun slid below the horizon, we managed one or two frames of them against the snow-covered mountains which rounded off an enjoyable visit very nicely.