A Red Letter Day ....

And that letter was most certainly the letter K.

I'm back! I have been raised from the clutches of man-flu and I have got a huge backlog of blips to put up. I'll be doing that over the next few days so keep your eyes out for things I took from my sick bed! ;o)

Decided to blow the last vestiges of this virus thing I have had by ticking off something on my bucket list for the year. Whist I was as the WOS Conference in Myddfai last year I found there was a Red Kite Feeding Site at nearby Llanddeusant, I was always going back there! The weather forecast for todaay was wall to wall blue sky sunshine and a bit of warmth. It was proper early spring day. This all meant fast shutter speeds and much much lower ISO, perfect for trying to take photos of moving Kites.

Red Kites are stunningly beautiful birds, and we saw one flying over the reservoirs, long before we got to Powys. We were promised close up views from their website. The hide is no more than twenty to thirty feet from where they feed them. I took both my long lenses with me, just in case.

The visitor centre was shut when we got there, which was a little disappointing, but we trundled back down to Myddfai Village Hall for a wonderful lunch or sandwiches and salad. It's good to be back on my food again.

The feeding takes place at 2pm during GMT hours and 3pm during BST hours. We got back to the hide by about ten to two. We could see the kites circling as we settled in. The food was thrown down and from what seemed nowhere five or six kites became a dozen, a dozen became two dozen, and at it's peak I reckon there were about fifty Red Kites swooping down for the food. In amongst them were the occasional Buzzard.

I reeled off 200+ photos, which I have made a start at editing. They are on my flickr site and in this set if you want to have a look.

I can't begin to tell you how pleased I am with this shot ... yes I know I cropped the of the wing feathers, but it really captures the drama of the day, and the beauty of this iconic Welsh bird.

It was all over in about half an hour, but it was an amazing half an hour!