Argaty Red Kites, Saturday 20/1/24

11 people travelled by minibus to Argaty Red Kites at Lerrocks Farm near Doune. As expected, we saw red kites as we approached, and were pleasantly suprised by a parge flock of winter thrushes feeding in a field just a few hundred metres away.
We were a bit early for feeding time, so watched the bird feeders in the car park where we got tree sparrow, yellowhammer, coal and blue tits and also a nearby bullfinch. Then we walked along the road and got nuthatch, fieldfare, redwing, mistle thrush, great tit and treecreeper. A farm steading further on had numerous fowl in a pen including guinea fowl and a pair of turkeys but we decided we couldn’t add them to our list.

After having our packed lunch in the visitor centre we were taken up to the viewing hide by the volunteer ranger Steven who gave us a brief talk about the red kites.
The farmer then put out some food out for the kites, who immediately began grabbing the food. It was exciting watching the adult birds swooping down to grab a piece of food then eat it on the wing. The youngsters tended to land to collect food as they were still trying to master the agility required to pluck food from the ground. We thought there were approximately 40 red kites as well as raven, buzzard and magpies taking advantage of the free food.
In front of the hide there were some small bird feeders which had attracted house sparrow, more yellowhammer and tree sparrow as well as a great spotted woodpecker, and a very dark coloured red squirrel which was very skittish, but made several visits to the feeders.
A great day out, getting very close views of the kites in action, and seeing a total of 37 species.

Karen