Seeing red.

Friday it finally snowed enough to close the glen road to two-wheeled drive vehicles but the upside was the increase in temperature that thawed the water supply - yay! Saturday was just picturesque, perfect for driving around and just enjoying it.

Saturday night we stayed over at a friends house and got a real surprise when we got up in the morning. As we stepped outside we could hear a Buzzard calling and we could see a few corvids mobbing a larger bird. It wasn't the calling Buzzard that was being mobbed but another bird that was instantly recognisable, long winged and a long tail that was constantly twisting as the bird dropped from sight - RED KITE!! Luckily I had the camera in the car and the bird reappeared long enough to get a record shot.

I couldn't leave it at that so after a quick visit home I headed back out to try to improve on the Kite photo. I was curious to see if this was the same bird that I was looking for on Thursday. I had a slight delay when I spotted two Otters fishing close to the shore. By the time I'd clambered down to their level they were both on the shore and clambering around. The Otters always put on a good performance but these two really do have the X factor!!

Back to the Kite...the bird was flying around being harassed occasionally by the Ravens but it was staying distant and I didn't have a scope to get a closer look. I took a few snaps of the bird from long range....

...and eventually the bird started to come closer. The big problem now was the fact that it was flying behind the forestry but the Ravens flushed it into the open and closer still.

Certainly no wing tags on this bird and a delight to watch. The bird drifted away and out of sight so I took the chance of following it. I picked the bird up again when I stopped the car but it was perched in a tree, backlit, distant and with no chance of getting any closer or even on the right side of the bird. There were quite a few gulls flying around a bit further back and no wonder...

...two WT Eagles had to be a bit scary! The weather was starting to close in and I'd got what I'd wanted so I headed for home seeing another 4 Otters along the way. Cracking stuff.