An afternoon at Bwlch Nant yr Arian ...... with a few red kites.

Limpy and I recently returned from a short break in mid-Wales - one of our ports of call, inevitably, was the red kite feeding station at Bwlch Nant yr Arian near Aberystwyth. It's fair to say that a LOT of kites were piling in for what was on offer:

What I initially took to be a herring gull turned out to be a yellow-legged!

The Five Red Kites of the Apocalypse ........ hmmmm. Not quite the same ring as the Four Horsemen.

I hope you all enjoy these.

Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.

Super captures Clare, great detail, must have been exciting to see live action ... is the YL gull a rarity?

2013 photos & vids here

eff37 on Flickr

Lovely.
Am fortunate enough to see them every day, but only with my old eyes, not via your fabulous photos.

Thank you -
Dave

In reply to WendyBartter:

WendyBartter said:
is the YL gull a rarity?

It's not something I see very often and it was a bonus to see it in action! I don't know if they are a regular sighting in that part of the world.

Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.

Lovely photo captures Clare and must have been an amazing site to see all the Kites coming in for the food; well done too with the YL gull, a bonus !

_________________________________________________________________________

Regards, Hazel

I did check my photo against the ones in Gulls of the World and it seemed to match - and, to be honest, I'm happy to go with what you think as you're rarely wrong. In fact you're one of the people whose IDing knowledge I respect most on here.

Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.

I have mixed feelings about the Kite feeding stations but I can understand the attraction of them and also see it as a good form of diversifying for farmers. We visited the one in Dumfries and Gallowa y a while back and even I got photos with my point and squirt pocket camera. A nice selection Clare the thoughts of Y L Gull is interesting

Pete

Birding is for everyone no matter how good or bad we are at it,enjoy it while you can

The one thing that did strike me at the feeding station was that everybody had come to see the kites - and they are now on the UK green list. Nobody would have thought anything of the accompanying gulls - ironically the yellow-legged gull is on the UK amber list and the herring gull (which was also present) had been a red listed bird for some years. It shows what is possible if you really want to help a species. I think our native gulls could do with a positive campaign.

Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.

In reply to Clare:

Clare Bailey said:
I think our native gulls could do with a positive campaign

I suspect that the public would weigh gulls on the one side and chips and ice cream on the other, and opt for chips and ice cream.

But I do agree with you.

Dave

Lovely pics, Clare. It is definitely a thrill to see so many Kites, especially knowing that they were very nearly extinct in the UK not that long ago. As for Gulls, I spent many happy hours as a child copying pictures of the Gulls I saw in the bird book. There was no hope of ever seeing a Gull of any kind in that area all those years ago!

Pete, I understand the possible concerns around feeding Kites or around the feeding of any birds; there are both pros and cons for that, but in addition to translocation, the feeding of Red Kites certainly has helped to restore the species in the UK.

Dave, Nice to see you posting (or have I been missing any threads where you were posting regularly, lol!) Hope all is well with you and yours and that you were unaffected by the earlier flooding there.

Kind regards, Ann

In reply to Gardenbirder:

Gardenbirder said:
Dave, Nice to see you posting

Thank you Anne; likewise.

All is well, thank you. For you too I hope.

Gardenbirder said:
unaffected by the earlier flooding there

I spent one evening shovelling hail out of the cellar and the garden looks like pesto, but otherwise we got off lightly, thank you.

The next village down the valley had 120 cm of water running through the streets; 20 minutes west and they had 6 cm hail (not 6 cm of, but hail 6 cm across).

The young swifts are wittering from under the tiles: three nests this year, although they're still not convinced about the nesting boxes. So, all in all we really can't complain.

All the best -

Dave

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