Flying Kites

Red Kite, C7, Blue/White

My luck was in yesterday: I had a sunny afternoon in the garden and the neighbouring fields were being ploughed for a spring sowing:

Straight into the field, a Common Gull and 20 Lesser Black backed Gulls appeared, unusual enough round this part of inland Wicklow: its incredible how they can zoom in on the one field thats being tilled.. I probably won't see gulls here again until the winter months when birds commute from Arklow on the coast up to the Vartry Reservoir at Roundwood.

The real excitement was yet to come: The assembled crows were aggitated as one and then a second Red Kite began patrolling the turned earth.  They put on a few tumbles before landing to search for earthworms and other insects exposed by the plough.  I managed to read the tags on the wings of one bird: C7 I think, pale blue on the left wing, white on the right. 

 A Buzzard put in a brief appearance too, tumbling in on the Kites which seemed to operate as a pair.