Pete's Walks - Red Kite

This is unquestionably my favourite bird - I think they are simply magnificent! They are an impressive size (a wingspan of up to 70in), have a distinctive long forked tail (and a distinctive long call!), colourful plumage, and are much less wary of humans than other birds of prey - I have often had them fly directly over me when I've been out walking.

They are doing very well in the Chiltern Hills, having been re-introduced around the Stokenchurch area in the early 1990's. They have gradually been spreading out from there, and so I see them on almost all of my walks in the Chiltern Hills. I achieved a long-held ambition of seeing a Red Kite in my home village of Kensworth on 17/02/08. Since then they have slowly become more common here, and nowadays I see one or more in or around Kensworth most weeks. I also sometimes see them near Huntingdon, where I work, as they were also successfully re-introduced in Rockingham Forest.

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Cadmore End, Bucks., 27/12/16

Near Watlington, Oxon., 17/04/16

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Studley Green, Bucks., 21/01/17

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Kensworth, Beds., 3/10/15

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Kensworth, Beds., 3/10/15

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Near Watlington, Oxon., 17/04/16

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Kensworth, Beds., 3/10/15

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Wormsley, Bucks., 8/04/17