Sunday 6 October 2013

Red Kites

Sunday 6th October 2013

Today we had a great day out at the Hawk Conservancy at Weyhill near Andover. We mainly went for the flying demonstrations and as usual they were fantastic - not the place to go if you are not comfortable with large birds of prey flying low at just above head height!  The highlight of the day was probably having vultures flying close over our heads, coming at us from both the left and right! Great stuff!

During this afternoons flying demonstration a group of black kites from the conservancy were flown over the audience and they were joined by about four wild red kites.  I haven't seen red kites in the wild before so this was an exciting first for me.

Other birds flown during the day included a peregrine falcon, a tawny eagle, various vultures, a golden eagle, a snowy owl, a fish eagle and a demonstration of a secretary bird attacking a rubber snake (needs to be seen to be believed!)  These birds are fantastically well trained and it's amazing that they don't fly away, they are obviously happy there.

The Hawk Conservancy does a lot of great work and it's a great place to visit, I can highly recommend it.

Snowy owl.

 
Vulture.

Bald Eagle.



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