Red Kite (Milvus milvus)

One thing we directors of Blipfoto don't get the chance to do very often is meet up.  We are spread geographically across a large area of England and Scotland so to make the effort we have to travel.  On this occasion I started out early to visit Annie of (AnnieandChris) for a catch up.  We had a productive time, but did get the chance for some photography before I headed back home.

We visited the delightful village of Brill, with its windmill sitting overlooking the Vale of Aylesbury.  Unfortunately, the mill was having work done with scaffolding partly obscuring the front of the sails and Arris fencing around its base.  The plan had been to take photographs of it, which seemed to be scuppered by the extra items around, but I finally found an ingenious way to take photograph without the scaffold and fencing being seen (see extra).

As we'd driven over to the windmill we were passed by a red kite.  Apparently they are as common as muck in the area, something I was probably aware of having driven along the M40 south of Oxford in the past, but I was still excited to see the graceful bird close up.  Luckily I had the 200-500mm lens in the car and after a little wait the kites came close enough to get a half decent image.