Flying kites

The other thing we saw yesterday was red kites. There are more and more of them round here now, which is lovely to see. This one was sitting in a field as we drove past and, when I saw it out of the corner of my eye, at first I thought it was a pheasant or something but quickly realised its form was that of something else. I grabbed my camera and changed the lens and settings while we reversed slowly back. I wound down my window and as we drew level with where I'd seen it I realised it was still there. Had I remembered to take my lens cap off I'd have got a really good shot of it sitting just a couple of metres away....as it was, the kite reacted and flew up, round and off into the distance. About five minutes later we saw another one being attacked by a crow but, again, it went off into the distance, crow in tow.

In other news, the National Park ranger told those of us who were at the common at the time this morning that the cows are coming back next week. Ten cows and ten calves to be precise - and hundreds of cow pats.