April, 2014
We have spent some time photographing Red Kites in Chilterns, England.
For more than 400 years the Red Kite was killed as vermin and became extinct in England and Scotland. By 1903 when protection efforts started, only a handful of pairs were left in Wales.
Red Kites were re-introduced to the Chilterns over 20 years ago. It is a very successful conservation story and Red Kite population is now believed to be the densest in Europe.
The first reddish-brown bird with angled wings and deeply forked tail we spotted along M40 motorway between High Wycombe and Oxford. Later on, we saw more and more Red Kites gliding over the fields while getting up on the hill. It was a really spectacular sight.
Red Kites are beautiful and graceful birds, it's a pleasure to watch them. Birds of prey are always special to us.
Red Kite can stay in the air with hardly a beat of its wings because of a relatively small body weight of 1-1.5 kg (2-3 lbs) and wingspan of nearly two meters.
They swoop down the air while twisting their forked tail like a rudder.
It is a glimpse of a second when Red Kites twist, turn and swoop through the air. They are incredibly agile birds and focusing this particular diving moment does not come easy.
It was great that we were lucky to have nice blue skies and afternoon sun which reveal brownish chestnut colors of the birds.
A real challenge was to photograph Red Kites diving through the air at the ground. With the trees at the background, it was tricky to track the birds but we have managed to capture couple of shots we were satisfied with.
Most of the time we were lucky with the weather conditions. Just one of the days was more challenging than others; the wind direction have changed and we ended up having poor lighting choices. The kites tend to fly into the wind, so it is ideal if light and wind are in the same direction.
We used to come to this amazing place in the morning and leave the hill after the sunset. The time at dusk was very exited and challenging making silhouette pictures of the Red Kite.
Overall we had a really enjoyable time photographing these distinctive birds. Back in London, for couple of days we couldn't stop looking for Red Kites in the sky. It's good to know that once near extinct bird is recovering steadily in most parts of UK. The future for the Red Kite is now much brighter but it is still under threat because of poisoning, shooting and egg collecting.
