Raptor Central

It poured with rain this morning, and then briefly brightened up for a short while earlier this afternoon.  I took the opportunity to race out in the hope of getting some wildlife shots.

Almost immediately I was kicking myself for fluffing up a shot of a Goldcrest.  I'd left the focus limiter on the lens and was too close to the bird to be able to get it in focus.  I realised almost immediately what was wrong, but by the time I'd flicked the little switch to remedy the situation, the bird was gone.  Gaaah! :-)

Cursing myself for every kind of idiot I walked on across the fields and was rewarded with a heavy downburst for 5 minutes.  But after that, the sun came out for an hour and I was graced with male and female kestrels, a buzzard, and 3 different red kites.  The kites all seemed to be following roughly the same path diagonally to the South West, so I don't know what that's about.  

I've featured one of the kites as my main, although the light was starting to go by then as more heavy rain was on its way.  The extra was taken earlier on (when the sun had come out) showing the kite being hassled by a rook, who was doing his best to make sure that the kite didn't take up residence. The kite in the extra actually has something in its claws and had been trying to eat it in mid air, circling while it did so, but the rook had other ideas about that.  The extra is quite a big crop, so its not perfect, but it captured the moment.