Kite Country

My work of late has predominantly taken me to north Cumbria, but on Friday it took me a little further north to southwest Scotland. I had two site visits; one to the southwest of Dumfries and the other to the northeast of Castle Douglas. Both sites are firmly in 'Kite country' and I was looking forward to seeing some Red Kites during my site visits.

I wasn't disappointed at seeing three Red Kites, but was hoping for a few more. However, this wasn't to be as the weather conditions during my site visits was particularly wet with poor visibility, not conducive for seeing Kites. Having said that it was still a thrill to see three of these great big lolloping raptors!

Hopping back south of the border I had another survey of young plantation woodland to do close to Penrith. The site is fairly isolated without any corridors connecting the plantation to habitat in the wider landscape and as a result bird usage has been minimal. Meagre highlights of this last survey included five Tree Sparrows, a Buzzard, a Raven and a Willow Warbler.

 Pied Wagtails regularly forage in the young plantation woodland.

We've got Swallows again this year roosting at one of the pools at the Obs so hopefully I'll have some news from there soon!