Tuesday 11 February 2014

A few Raptors

Common Buzzard, found a few years back, sitting in the sun on the top track of the patch. A rare sight these days. (its that blade of grass again, I swear it follows me around)
Well the weather continues to interfere with the camera outings, with very cold winds, rain, and as I write, it is snowing, with quite large flakes. There is just no let up in the bad  weather, and no end in sight. However the North west has fared better than the poor souls in the Southern half of the country, where vast areas of land are under water, to say nothing of the countless properties that have been flooded, with owners having to evacuate.
    So having been trapped inside the house, it is with regret that I delve once more into the archives in an effort to keep the blog ticking over.

Two summers back I was just getting out of the car at Skinberness, and in time to catch this Kestrel

And again a few years back we visited the Red Kite feeding station in Dumfries & Galloway.

As can be seen this bird has been tagged, each Kite around the UK is tagged with two colours, one colour denotes there year it was born, the other where it was born. So if one drifts into another county it can be ID'd and recorded
More common Buzzards, again at a time when they where seen like this on a daily bases on or above the patch.

Common Buzzard

Golden Eagle, photo two years ago, when we had a full week of  scorching weather on Mull

And lastly a Peregrine, sat close to its nest on a crag in Lancashire, the photo was taken using a Nikon attached to a Swarovski 80 on full 60X zoom
Thank you for looking in. Linking to  Stewart's Wild bird Wednesday,http://paying-ready-attention-gallery.blogspot.co.uk/

18 comments:

  1. I really enjoyed your raptor pictures. From Findlay

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  2. HI Gordon What wonderful photographs of the birds of prey.

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  3. Well of course I'm sorry you can't get outside, but I'm not sorry at all that you posted these beautiful pictures from your archives. The flight shots -- I can only dream of getting. And the closeups are wonderful. In the western part of the US we use the word 'buzzards' slangily to describe vultures. (There are cowboy songs about the buzzards circling about as the cowboy is about to perish on the desert). But I don't think we actually have a bird called that. Your buzzard is a beautiful raptor and much much more handsome than the vulture, no comparison.

    I was just listening this morning to a report about that terrible flooding.

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  4. Awesome collection of raptors and photos. Enjoy your week!

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  5. Great collection of photos, the Red Kites in particular!

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  6. You have such wonderful shots of those birds on the wing!

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  7. beautiful birds of prey. Especially liked seeing the Peregrine Falcon at the end.

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  8. Thank you every one for you kind comments.
    Take care, Gordon.

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  9. Oh, I love raptors! These are excellent. But what you call "buzzards", we call hawks. :)

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  10. just awesome sightings - all of them! the golden eagle is fabulous!

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  11. Magnificent shots!

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  12. I'm impressed! Your shots of the flying kestrel are great!

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  13. Beautiful shots..love the header. Ive seen a peregrine falcon but none of the other raptors that you have posted..hope to sight them soon.
    www.lakshmisharath.com

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  14. Love the shots of the birds in flight.

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  15. Splendid set of birds - was was surprised at how many buzzards I saw the last tinge I was back in the UK - they are never common in Somerset!

    Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne

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A big thank you to everyone for looking in and leaving their comments, much appreciated, Gordon.