More white kites

Since seeing my first leusistic red kite I have spent many hours over many days looking for them. These birds have normal coloured eyes as apposed to albino's that have pink. This bird carried the wing tag No. 51 which I spotted it many times over the following years. The tag fell off after a few years but I still recognised the bird.

This picture was taken more than 16years ago and it was my first siting of a white kite. No. 51 was tagged a couple of years before in Wales. The wing tags were used to track the birds because they can on occasions fly vast distances.
 

Parteners

Sometimes odd things happen in front of the camera.  These pictures were taken on different tmes and of different birds in different locations. A little bit of food is thrown down on a regular basis and it is surprising how quickly word gets around. This was done for experimentation and as you can see it was a total success.

Raven and a white kite came in together on several occasions. This shot was taken in Wales.

Raven and buzzard at a place in Sussex. On private property which I promised not reveal its location.
 

White buzzard

Well you liked my white red kite pictures so here is another pale friend of mine. Saw it on many occasions in Wales. It would come into the feeding station and take its share of the food and not be bothered with all the hoo-ha going on around it.

As you can see it was a beautiful bird and the way that it strutted around it certainly knew it.

This abnormal colouring is called leucisism ( I think I spelled that right ). Many species of animals and birds can be affected by it.
 

WHITE KITE

I have over the years that I have been photographing red kites I have come across some oddities, nothing as odd as the white red kite. This is not an albino,  it is a malfunction in the body geans. A total lack of melanine which puts the red pigment into the skin and in turn into the feathers. Other birds and animals can have it and can lead normal lives with no handicaps. There is no record of these creatures breeding.

These pictures are of different birds photographed over a period of about 15 years. Because of the age that red kites live to locals often give them names as they are instantly recognised.

They are terrific to catch them in bright sun light and so easy to photograph in flight.

They are often in the company of other kites and are not outcast. This one I new well over several years and as you can see it wasn't put off by the camera. I no longer travel so I will miss going to Wales and seeing it.
 

Red Kites

Because of lockdown and my age of course, I find it difficult to do the things as planned. Today would have been a good day to achieve something but at the last moment it decided to rain so I have decided to post a few pictures of my favourite bird. The Welsh Red Kite.  I have in stock over 3500 pictures taken over the past 25years. These were taken on a Welsh farm belonging to a dear friend who passed away some years ago. I post these as a tribute to him and his dear wife Lena.

I had the freedom of his farm and visited him and his wife 4 or 5 times a year for more than 20years.

Thank you Eithel and Lena Powell, long may you be remembered for the wonderful work you did with the rehabilitation of the red kite in Wales.
 

By the way

 

The birds on my having disappeared has left me with not a lot to do so my infra-red cameras came in to play, but now my garden animals have gone and I am at a loss. I always carry a camera in the car and the other day returning from a shopping trip in the next village we stopped in a quiet lane and to our surprise we were being observed. Only a matter of metres away stood a fallow doe. She made no attempt to run and stood watching us in the car.

New friend

 This young for which I named Junior has been visiting my garden for around 2years. He came first time with his parents.  They don't come anymore so he came by himself for a while and then brought a yong fox along for a few weeks. He then made friends with a hedgehog, that lasted several months until the hedgehog disappeared and now he seems to be having a relationship with a cat. I wonder how long this will last.

Old faithfull

With my age still creeping up on me I am finding difficult on some days to go out with my camera's. But as luck will have it young 'junior' has started comming round for supper again.

The infrared camera doesn't flash. It just has a tiny red glow when it fires but somehow Junior appears to spot it some five metres away. We have auto lights in the garden and when these come on they don't seem to bother him.

He's very tidy, never leaves any mess, even cleans up after the hedgehogs.
 

Back to colour

On the way back from a Sunday appointment at the hospital Jacque and I took a diversion to one of our favourite coffe stops. After which we made our way home via the back roads. We stopped at a place which we had decided previously as a possible spot for photo's. To our surprise we saw this handsome beast about 30m away looking straight at us poking his tongue out.

He did not run but just stood and stared.

Close by two of his females did the same thing. Just stood and stared.

A third female was spotted a little further away and again was not bothered just stood and stared. These animals had the freedom of the woods and fields which is what I like to see. They are part of the Knepp Castle rewilding prodject. I think the owners deserve a huge pat on the back.

There will be a lot more to come.
 

My new patch

I had the feeling that something was very fishy with the disappearing wildlife in my area of Sussex. I headed north out of my village for about 5 miles and found the area rich in wildlife. It was farming country but animals and not cereals as it is close to home. I saw many small birds and of course there were raptors like the common buzzard above.

I have come to the conclusion  that the difference in farming methods was to blame. In this new area there were no crops just animals with large wooded areas. This area backs on to the Knepp Castle estate. The owners renowned for their rewilding prodject.  In the future this is the direction I will be spending my time.
 

Where has all the wildlife gone.

When I moved into my present home several years ago I looked forward to having loads of wildlife close by with  lots of photography to do. It started well with plenty of bird life and animals coming into the garden I thought I was in my element. Two years ago I noticed a decline, the village pond the herons vanished, the cormorants went and the swans there now are artificial in an effort to keep the canada's away. Of the 40 odd swallows that nested every summer in the local houses this year just one pair were seen with no record of a nest. The feeders in my garden are rarely touched and I often throw the seed away before it rots. I paid a visit to the RSPB at Pulborough Brooks which is just 3 miles away at the week-end and in one hour I saw just 2 rabbits and a crow. I spoke to a photographer who was just leaving and asked what kind of day he had and all I got in reply was a shrug of the shoulders. The ponds had dried up, the feeders had gone. I have been a visitor there for more than 30 years and it has been high up on my photography sites list and a large proportion of my 40,000plus photo's have been taken there and to see the area like this hurts. This has nothing to do with the virus, I am sure it is air polution.

Finally

With all the computer problems I've had over the past few weeks I think I have reached some sort of  result after spending loads of time and loads of money.

Just because the computer had given up on me it did not mean that I had to call a halt to my photography. The wildlife seems in my garden seems to be on holiday, nothing much has been appearing on camera except Mum and Junior who rarely miss a night.  As for the kingfisher below  I know its not real but I haven't done colour for such a long time and as this was an early birthday present I thought it might brighten up the post a bit.

New computer problems

After a complete computer failure several weeks ago I was advised that it would be more economical to have a new one rather than attempt to repair it. This I did and I have been off line ever since. After much investigation over many days I have finally managed this post (I hope). I am sorry that I have been unable to reply to your posts. I hope that I will be able to return to normallity very soon. Mike.

Foxes in the garden

Once again my infra-red cameras did me proud and worked well while I was asleep. This is Mum just about to tuck in when she suddenly realized she was being watched.

But she need not have worried it was only Junior having a lay down while waiting his turn at the food.

All quiet again

After the incident of the other night all seems to be back to normal. Here are the pair of them enjoying their supper. Mum doesn't seem to be around, I am wondering if she is occupied with another family problem.

Ghost in the garden

I put the infra-red camera out as usual still not having the chance to go out and do some real photography. I am not getting much in the garden at the moment so I was rather surprised to get these photo's.

This is Beatie an old dog fox  who visits most evenings and I got several shots of him behaving rather oddly.

  A couple of shots later I got this one with something flying over his head. It did not occur to me what it was until a couple of shots later when I realised it was Junior making a rapid entry. The suddeness of the entry frightened Beatie and it took him about 10 minutes to get over it.

Friends

Every night these two turn up for thier supper. They arrive at about the same time as the other and share the meal I put out for them.

 This has been going on for a couple of months. I used to have two badgers, three foxes and four hedgehogs but a couple of disturbances have scared the others off, but these two don't seem to scare easily.

 As you can see they share the food quite happily. I did think the hedgehog was scared and would run away but no if the fox arrives first the hedgehog will trot up later and join the fox.

They definately enjoy each others company and will meet up again in the early hours of the morning, sometimes in daylight.

Fox 'junior'

'Junior' seemed a bit aggresive tonight. He was pacing up and down, frightening the hogs away. I think he arrived a bit late and all the food had gone or perhaps he's getting fed up with all the photo's being taken of him. He certainly put on a bit of a face for the camera.

Fox visit

 Last night was a bit quiet and not a lot turned up. Beatie did and after a little look around soon settled down to his supper.

 Shortly after Mum turned up and helped herself to her share. Its a mixture of bran flakes and small dog biscuits.

Then to round off the evening Junior arrived and made hi,self comfortable and settled down to clean up what was left.

Early morning fox

At 0430hrs this morning  after a busy night my I/R camera captured an old friend of mine in the garden. This is Beatie, the name derived from his broken tail (BT). The pics. are I/R therefore black and white.

 The quality is outstanding considering the amount of light at that time of the mornig ( with a little help from Photoshop of course). These were taken in my front garden so he was distracted by someone on their way to work.

Nothing bothers Beatie for long, he has been visiting me for 4 years now so feels quite safe.

Supper time

I put the camera out again last night and there they were at it again. That fox always arrives at the same time as the hedgehog.

Its a young fox and it really has taken a liking to this hedgehog. I expect they will be together again tonight.

My new I/R camera

My new I/R camera arrived yesterday, an early birthday present from Jacque, and what a camera, half the price of my previous cameras and 10 times better. Harder to set up but once it is done. Wow!

 A fox came along to join him,  They were about 3m from the camera so I was very pleased with the result which has so much more detail and a lot sharper than any of my other I/R cameras.

These two know each other well and the fox greets the hog with a kiss.

 The fox has a good look round to see if there is anything else of interest.

He has one last little snack before he goes home,

When daylight comes the blackbirds arrive to clean up, These photo's were taken on one camera setting.