Red Kite

I saw a red kite wheeling over the back of our house last week, soaring in that angular, almost prehistoric way they have. It quite made my day.

It is the first I have seen in such close proximity to the village, and considering only 10 years ago I was travelling around the country to catch a glimpse of these magnificent predators, it demonstrates a remarkable resurgence in their numbers.

It was a tradition that on the May Bank Holiday my then girlfriend (thankfully now my wife) and I would travel down the M40 to Stokenchurch to see Red Kites mewing and planing across the chalk hills of the Chilterns where around 50 pairs had been introduced, I believe sometime in the late 80s.

We then lunched at a favourable local hostelry and chatted enviously to locals who told us the birds regularly swooped over their bird tables as they scavenged for scraps.

The afternoon would be spent around local bluebell woods, marvelling at that incredible palette of blue that seeps from the gloaming under the trees. After a pleasant couple of hours following badger tracks and birdwatching among the trunks, we would head home and open a bottle, feeling we had been part of a small but important natural success story.

I can hardly believe that today I can walk out of my back door with my binoculars and find a kite or buzzard hunting alongside me in the local rides and hedgerows, where once only the humble kestrel ruled the skies.