The second part of our Wales visit was to a famous place called Gigrin Farm. OK, i admit to most people who are reading this, they will have never heard of Gigrin farm, but in the birdwatching fraternity it is actually very renowned for being a great place to spot Red Kites.
This is in no small part due to the fact that the landowner has gone against normal farming convention of poisoning these wonderful birds and instead encourages them with meat offerings on a daily basis. Kites are scavenger birds and have been accused of killing lambs and the like, but judging by the hoards of disinterested sheep all around the feeding site, i suspect this is more of an urban myth (much like badgers posing a TB threat to cattle!). This campaign left the Red Kite extinct in almost all of England, and down to a few colonies in Wales, but following a successful breeding programme their numbers are increasing once again.
We arrived at the appropriately named Red Kite pub, and it was at this point i started to feel inadequate. There is something curious about males comparing themselves to other males, and i fell slap bang into one of those scenarios right now. Up until that point i was entirely proud and happy with my 300mm telephoto lens, thinking this was a lens which would make me the envy of the rest of the people wanting to see the birds. I could not have been more wrong as men sat at the pub with whole assortments of lenses that were so large they needed their own tripods to balance them.
Suddenly, i started worrying if my lens was big enough for Sarah, and thinking maybe she will wander off with a man with a bigger lens than me.....bless her i think she was entirely bored with the whole sitting in a hide thing though, and was not paying any attention to any of these other men (thank goodness!), so i decided to out my worries to one side and focus on the birds.
Now all that meat being fed to these kites on a daily basis must add up to a fair few pounds of money, and so the owner charges £2 to go and see the kites, which i thought was entirely reasonable. Also, there is a concept in Wales called Honesty boxes, which i have not really heard of in England, but it was wonderfully refreshing as it shows an inherent trust in people - i liked this idea a lot and actually paid more than necessary.
Once he collected the cash, the landowner proceeded to throw out some meat. These kites are clever buggers though, and had already been gathering for the past half an hour knowing what was coming, as soon as the man entered the field they were swooping around excitedly.
This is in no small part due to the fact that the landowner has gone against normal farming convention of poisoning these wonderful birds and instead encourages them with meat offerings on a daily basis. Kites are scavenger birds and have been accused of killing lambs and the like, but judging by the hoards of disinterested sheep all around the feeding site, i suspect this is more of an urban myth (much like badgers posing a TB threat to cattle!). This campaign left the Red Kite extinct in almost all of England, and down to a few colonies in Wales, but following a successful breeding programme their numbers are increasing once again.
We arrived at the appropriately named Red Kite pub, and it was at this point i started to feel inadequate. There is something curious about males comparing themselves to other males, and i fell slap bang into one of those scenarios right now. Up until that point i was entirely proud and happy with my 300mm telephoto lens, thinking this was a lens which would make me the envy of the rest of the people wanting to see the birds. I could not have been more wrong as men sat at the pub with whole assortments of lenses that were so large they needed their own tripods to balance them.
Suddenly, i started worrying if my lens was big enough for Sarah, and thinking maybe she will wander off with a man with a bigger lens than me.....bless her i think she was entirely bored with the whole sitting in a hide thing though, and was not paying any attention to any of these other men (thank goodness!), so i decided to out my worries to one side and focus on the birds.
Now all that meat being fed to these kites on a daily basis must add up to a fair few pounds of money, and so the owner charges £2 to go and see the kites, which i thought was entirely reasonable. Also, there is a concept in Wales called Honesty boxes, which i have not really heard of in England, but it was wonderfully refreshing as it shows an inherent trust in people - i liked this idea a lot and actually paid more than necessary.
Once he collected the cash, the landowner proceeded to throw out some meat. These kites are clever buggers though, and had already been gathering for the past half an hour knowing what was coming, as soon as the man entered the field they were swooping around excitedly.
This is one of the early diners waiting for his food
A lot of Red Kites swooping down and grabbing food from eachother. It reminded me of the all-you-can-eat buffet at Pizza Hut......
Now i am only used to seeing one or two kites in my limited English experience of the birds, so i was totally blown away by the 30 odd kites that were swooping and diving all around us. I started snapping away like a crazy Japanese tourist, and thank goodness for the quick fire setting as i must have fired off over 400 pictures in 10 minutes. It was a truly amazing experience, and one that left me grinning from ear to ear for the rest of the day. In fact you could say i was as high as a kite.....
Some individual close ups i managed to get; I may have taken 400 pictures, but only a handful were any good!!
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