Prime Time Kites

I remember a couple of years back, after visiting the Red Kite feeding station at Gigrin Farm in August when all the birds were in moult and looking fairly tatty, calling to ask when was the best time visit to catch the birds looking at their best.  The answer came back as November when the birds have their fresh set of post moult feathers. The other good feature about visiting in November is that you can get some autumnal colours in the backdrop from the trees along the right hand side of the feeding area.

So with it being that very month a visit was due and I headed into the middle of Wales with some good weather  in prospect.

A visit to Gigrin is always a wonderful experience not just to see the spectacle of so many wild birds of prey congregated but as a photographer you also know that you are virtually guaranteed a few images. Red kites rarely land and tend to swoop down to grab the free offerings from the ground and therefore nearly all the photography is of birds in flight. Therefore for any visit weather is key and the need for some good light to get enough shutter speed to freeze the action and also preferably with a blue sky. The red hues of the kites are certainly set off well against a blue backdrop.

For those of you who have not visited Gigrin, firstly you should and secondly for photographers there are three specially built hides to chose from. A ground level hide, a mid-level hide and a tower hide. On my previous visits I have always used the ground level one but realised the advantage offered by the tower for capturing those photographs of the birds twisting in flight before plunging towards the ground.

As I climbed the stairs of the tower, the Red Kites could be seen to be gathering in the air above, together with Buzzards and an onlooking of audience of Rooks, Ravens and Crows in the trees on the right hand side of the field. The stage was set. Nothing can really prepare you for what happens when the free feed is scattered around the field. In fact it is often better just to watch and take in the spectacle as there is just too much going on for  photography as a couple of hundred kite swirl in front of you and plunge dive towards the field. The photography becomes easier once the initial feeding frenzy subsides and lower numbers of birds pick off the remaining offering at a slightly more leisurely pace.

I had two particular photographs that I was looking for the dorsal view of the bird (as above) and the turn and diving photos. The latter being the more tricky of the two due to the speed of the action. I was also keen to take some better photographs than my previous visit of the 'ghostly' form of the leucistic red kite. I always find the best approach is just to pick out a particular bird that looks interested in making a dive and following round with the lens. Often as the action is fairly intense you tend not to know what is on the memory card until you get home and download the images, expect for the occasional image checked for exposure during the session. The are always some nice surprises when you arrive home.

Red Kites are such masters of the air, gliding in and making adjustments to their flight with subtle twists of the large forked tail.

The kites performed beautifully,  the low autumn sun shone, the wind was even in the right direction for once and the leucistic kite put in several appearances. Interestingly the plumage on this bird did not appear as pristine as the normal coloured birds. (Please note that this particular bird has two plastic wing tags (No.51) which I have removed in Photoshop for aesthetic purposes. It seems a shame that the appearance of this unusually beautiful bird has been spoilt by these tags).

Overall it was another very memorable couple of hours at Gigrin and no doubt will not be last visit. If you have not visited yet then I urge you to do so to soak up one of the most amazing avian spectacles of the UK.

Gigrin Kites

The Red Kite feeding station at Gigrin Farm in mid-Wales is a superb place for the bird photographer. This long established site, with excellent hides, can attract up to 300 birds during the daily afternoon feeding. Other species are also drawn in by the free meat handout including good numbers of both Buzzard and Raven.

I have only visited twice before and both times have been very brief for various reasons. Looking back into my photo archive, my last visit was back in the summer of 2008, and definitely far too long ago. On that visit the skies were grey, the light was poor and the birds looked rather tatty as they were in mid-moult.  So with a day off work booked last Friday and the forecast looking reasonably good, I set off with my friend Steve on the twisting and fairly tortuous journey down in to mid-Wales.

For Gigrin to be at its best the ideal conditions are clear skies and a light southerly wind. Red Kites do not look good against a white sky and a blue sky or one with dark grey clouds is better. Sunlight is also needed to show the colours of the birds off to the best. As Red Kites rarely land, most of the photography is of birds in flight. As with all birds, the kites tend to fly into the wind so a northerly breeze tends to have them pointing in the wrong direction and away from the hides and the direction of light. When photographing birds in flight the ideal is for light and wind to be in the same direction.  The forecast was for sunny spells and a very cold brisk northerly wind.

We arrived early at opening time at 1pm and made our way down the track to the pre-booked photography hide. There are three specialist photography hides, one at ground level known as the 'Gateway hide' and two tower hides. We were booked in to the ground level one. Feeding time was at 3pm (it changes today to 2pm for the winter months) so we had a couple of hours to wait.

The Kites were  already starting to gather. They really are superb fliers and soar around with very little effort using that broad forked tail as a rudder to make adjustments in direction. As we waited the clear blue skies overhead started to cloud up. We could see in front of us what was coming and in the distance a layer of grey cloud was building rapidly. Sunlight and blue skies were going to be limited.

A few minutes before 3pm and we could hear the engine of the tractor approaching down the track with a trailer of meat to put out for the birds. The birds started descending as soon as the meat was scattered and before the tractor had left the feeding area. We estimated around 250 birds, surely one of the most spectacular raptor sights in the UK. However, during the initial frenzy there tends to be actually just too many birds to photograph. The best actions tends to come later on as the birds have settled down a bit and it becomes easier to target individual birds with the camera.

One of the two unusual leucistic birds that visit the site, soaring past the autumn coloured trees .

In total we had about 20 minutes of sunshine and so tried to make the most of the brief sunny spells. I was keen to try and get some diving photos during this session. Typically the birds will drift over the food before turning in mid-air and plunging to the ground to grab a bit of meat off the ground.

The majority of the Kites looked brilliant with their new feathers, having recently moulted. Another advantage of timing our visit when we did was that some of the surrounding trees were showing their autumn colours providing some really attractive coloured backgrounds to the photographs. I am a big fan of the dorsal view for birds in flight, particularly Red Kites as the show great colours and patterns across their backs and the upper side of the wings.

After 90 minutes it was all over. The birds were still feeding but we had lost the light to the advancing unbroken blanket of cloud. Needless to say it was a very enjoyable session and I will return once more this year when hopefully the conditions with be a bit more favourable.