The Joy of Nature - big bird watch and surprising behaviour of a cow!

Nice post Marianne!!

I love birds, especially birds of prey. I've had some amazing encounters with buzzards. I have a wood and fields on the edge of our housing estate.

I'm going to watch the film H is for  Hawk tomorrow too. It's about a Goshawk. I'm not sure I agree with falconry though. It's a true story about dealing with grief.

We're lucky with the numbers of birds of prey round here, we have buzzards, kestrels, sparrow hawks, peregrine falcons and I think marsh harriers. We don't have Red Kites, I'm not sure if theres a lack of suitable nest sites on the island in general or if they've just not come over here yet? Some terrible people, killed the two golden eagles that were introduced to Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon), if I ever meet those people they will die a horrible death like the one they inflicted on the eagles.

When I was on Skye I used to see lots of golden eagles, I once saw a pair teaching their young how to ride the air currents. One parent was high above and demonstrating what to do for the youngsters, whilst the other parent was lower down, below the youngsters, probably to help if they made a mistake?

That is an impressive number of birds of prey. I think we have enough red kites to make up for your lack. We often see around 8 at a time, they are one of the successes after being listed as being on the endangered list years ago. 

That is an impressive number of birds of prey. I think we have enough red kites to make up for your lack. We often see around 8 at a time, they are one of the successes after being listed as being on the endangered list years ago. 

When I lived in Lampeter I could watch the red kites in winter riding the thermals coming out of peoples chimney pots on a cold morning.