Feeding Time

This morning we had a quick visit to Threave Gardens. A very lovely place we haven't visited for many, many years.

The main reason for our visit to Dumfries & Galloway was to see the red kites being fed. I can say it was nothing like I expected. I had thought there may be a dozen or so birds. Wrong! There were 75 -80 of these wild birds flying around! Apparently less than usual as in summer they aren't as much in need of this free meal given daily throughout the year.

I'm used to going to falconry events where trained birds fly in a more or less predictable fashion, one at a time. Also, I'm used to being able to choose where I stand to photograph the event. Today, due to the direction of the wind, I presume, the birds always approached from over the building behind us and flew away from us so it was very difficult to achieve anything but back views.

The sheer numbers of birds flying very fast was awesome, I just wish we had been there on a brighter day so that I could have brought the ISO down for crisper shots. I was amazed at the way the birds started gathering in the trees from about 12.30pm ready for the 2pm feed.