Delia spots Red Kite at Kinnordyo
:t:
I arrived at Kinnordy at about 9 this morning in glorious sunshine. I first of all went into the gullery hide and found 5 ospreys flying round, the marsh harrier and a water rail chick sunbathing. The ospreys were using the tall fir tree across from the hide, to perch on. One of the birds flew around for ages with a fish connected to its talons and didn't seem to know what to do with it. Eventually it decided to put down at the top of the tree and enjoy its early lunch.
Apart from the ospreys, the reserve was pretty quiet. A common sandpiper had been seen earlier in the morning but i didn't see it and the water rail had been seen at both gullery and east hides. I saw frequent activity across in the bog bean opposite the gullery hide.
Along at the swamp hide, it was the usual suspects in attendance...mallard, tufties, coot, moorhen and gadwall. The east hide was even quieter with the two black headed gulls on their tree and a few ducks, in the reeds on the far side.
A flock of 60+ lapwing arrived, divided up into two groups with 20 landing on the far side at the swamp end and the others going towards the gullery. Another flock of 200+ then circled before heading off in the direction of egno moss across the road.
Well, at 11.50 Delia arrived for the guided walk so off we went to the swamp hide. Same birds as earlier on in the day but we started to watch the buzzards on the other side of the loch, above the hill. We counted 6 before Delia started to get a bit excited.."I'm sure thats not a Buzzard"...and before i could get a look, it had gone down behind the trees. It came up a few moments later and Delia was sure it was a kite. Thankfully it stayed up long enough for me to see its long forked tail and confirm the sighting. Well done Delia!!!! Thats a first for me at Kinnordy and i'm going to check to see if its a first for Kinnordy!! The kite was last seen heading west, towards Delias' patch...well thats what she hopes!!!
After that, the walk was a bit flat. Not many birds to see, but we did make it round to the lilly pond for lunch and hopefully a sighting of the ospreys on their dead tree. As we approached the pond, a sparrowhawk flew past over head.
Guess what...no ospreys!! One did a fly past but decided to keep on going. Some cows in the neighbouring field came over to see us, but Delia soon got them under control!! It must have been the cup of tea they were after...or they were just wondering what we were doing sitting around, looking at nothing!!!
After lunch, it was back off to the carpark and even the walk back was quiet. A few warblers, wrens, robin and coal tits.
Hopefully tomorrow, the weather will be just as good and we WILL see some ospreys in the tree. I was going to post a photo with 8 superimposed ospreys on it but someone said they would spill the beans!!
Darell