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Message: <blockquote data-quote="John Barber" data-source="post: 1684265" data-attributes="member: 77569">Christmas CrackerManaged to escape family duties yesterday and take a stroll with my brother-in-law along a bridal path in Gloucestershire, not far from Burford. A lovely day with bright sunshine but bitingly cold.I was taken aback by how few birds were to be seen amongst these wide upland fields. No pigeons, no sparrows, no starlings, no robins, no chaffinch, just the odd crow and a couple of blackbirds in over a mile of unremitting claggy mud. No wonder there was no one else around.After standing and admiring the views for a while we finally turned for home. And that's when I saw them.....Kite !Obviously a large raptor; at first I thought they were buzzards, but a twist and turn revealed their true identity, a pair of Red Kite.I've seen lots of Red Kite in Galloway but these were my first English birds. My great delight was a source of some amusement to my non-birding relative but I think even he appeciated the grace and beauty of these lovely birds.We watched for several minutes as one of the very few crows within miles moved in to mob the duo, with absolutely no success. They just completely ignored him.I'm not quite sure just what these birds find to eat out there, all seemed so bleak and relatively lifeless. But as I found out later, these birds are common in this area now, so there must be enough food somewhere to be found.And so back to the car - and on the way, a solitary stone chat sat and watched from stubble. The only other note of ornithological distinction.</blockquote>

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