Red Kites

Red Kites at Argaty farm, 21 March 09
All the family, apart from Kate & Ruben (Ruben had a party to go to), came over to our house in Stirling today before heading up to Doune to Argaty Farm where they have a wild group/ flock of rare birds of prey, red kites, living. In the winter the birds group together before going their separate ways again in the spring when they pair up and establish nests across a wider area.

In the viewing hide -a bit chilly and windy

The farm is a working farm where they try to work with not against nature and they've built a viewing hide where you can pay to see the wild birds. They tag the birds so they can track their progress- some have moved up to enar Inverness and one has even gone to Wales to live. Michael and I have been once before in February when it was foggy and all we could see were the silhouettes although we could hear their eery cries.

Red kites - we counted over 30. They have a distinctive v-shaped tail.

The weather was ideal today to see them nice and sunny and windy. There were over 30 kites and we got some amazing views of them. The guide feeds themonce a day with a small amount of meat-usually rabbit but today they had sea trout which they seemed to love. The birds feed on carrion, worms, small mammals in the wild and they are also partial to fresh sheep's placenta- mm, yum! They are quite light birds- around a kilo in weight - so they couldn't catch or kill something as big as a lamb despite some people believing they are capable of this and persecuting them as a result.

Kites swooping down to get the sea trout

The guide set up a telescope so we could see some of the birds close up and he spotted one perched on a telegraph pole so we got a good view of its beautiful feathers. With our binoculars we could see the kites swoop down to get the fish and then eat it on the wing!

The sound is poor quality but the images aren't bad - they loved that sea trout even if it wasn't fit for human consumption!

Jan & Feb - gone in a blur!

Well, I haven't been blogging much the past 2-3 months, as you may have noticed. The rest of January went by very quickly- I was ill for about 2 weeks although working for most of that time. Work has been very busy and not very enjoyable but I had some good news the week before my hols - not only did I get through an internal competition allowing me to put in a full proposal for a 3 year research fellowship at Stirling uni but I also got past the 1st stage of selection to get a grant from one of the research councils to do my own research for 3 years. I'd do one or the other, not both, but applying for more than one is hedging my bets as you don't find out till summer if you've been successful. Of course, I now have to write 2 proposals on top of doing my day job! We have been out and about quite a bit in February. Some of the highlights for me are below.

We went to see the red kites at Argaty farm, Doune. It was pretty foggy so we couldn't see them in detail but we could see their silhouettes and hear their calls http://www.argatyredkites.co.uk/home1.html

Dukes Pass Road between Aberfoyle and Callander Dad by snowdrops at Culzean Castle & Country Park, Ayrshire Snowdrops at Culzean Luss, Loch Lomond from the pier
Luss, Loch Lomond

Luss, Loch Lomond - picnic in the winter sun Michael at Inveruglas looking towards Loch Lomond & Ben Lomond covered in snow

The snow covered mountains at Crianlarich

Loch Katrine - robin singing & me getting used to the zoom!