I went out for a drive last week and saw a couple of red kites. They are fantastic birds aren’t they? If you remember I set myself the target of seeing red kites on 200 days of 2012 – and enjoying the moment each time. I am falling short so far – I’m heading for…
Tag: red kite
Ramblings
It was my birthday on Thursday and I was in my car for much of the day so it reminded me of the USA trip to which I was looking forward (rightly) this time last year. Driving through southern England is a bit different from driving on the open roads of much of the USA…
That was the week that was
I had a great time at Cheltenham and you had a great time with the excellent guest blogs here. Thank you to Matt Williams, Andrew Lucas, Sue Walker and Leo Fisher for four stimulating blogs. And thank you all for your comments on the blogs. I will come back to some of these subjects myself…
Pieces and bits
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Yesterday was a lovely day to pass through the Cotswolds on the way to and from Cheltenham racecourse – four short-eared owls, raven and red kite. No winners, but Big Buck’s ran up his 15th successive win. I did the Big Garden Birdwatch – I’ll blog about it next week – have you, yet? I…
Many bits and pieces
Last week this blog passed its 2000th comment – which seems pretty good going. I am pleased to see that regular commenter Dennis Ames provided that 2000th comment alongside 137 others over the months. I do enjoy seeing all your comments- whether I agree with them or not – do keep them coming please. I…
A bird of resolution
The recovery of the red kite is a great conservation success story and it’s good to see it celebrated in the regional press like here. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to see red kites, and spend at least a minute revelling in their beauty, on at least 200 days this year. They are…
Red kites
I see red kites quite often over my garden in east Northants now – practically every day if the weather is OK and I spend enough time looking. I saw one as I was on my way to the Post Office on Tuesday, and on both Tuesday and Wednesday, on trips to London, I saw…
Mad Max again
Good to see that the RSPB has had a response to Max Hastings’s article of last week published in the Financial Times, a rather moderately worded response given the poor nature of the original article. It is always a bit of a lottery whether newspapers publish responses or not. It’s frustrating if errors go unchallenged…
Bears, condors, kites and foxes – not for cuddling
The recent killing of a male hiker by a grizzly bear is the first such death in Yellowstone National Park for 25 years and seems to be a highly unfortunate case where walkers accidentally disturb a bear with young and the mother bear defends her cubs. A month ago I had my own close encounter…
The raptor haters – Richard Ingrams
The raptor haters is an occasional series of articles on people who slag off birds of prey. Richard Ingrams finds red kites ‘menacing‘, ‘savage‘ and ‘unlikeable‘ and is ‘pleased to see a picture of a dead one‘. Every three years or so he dips his pen in poison and is really nasty about these magnificent…