Red Kite delight!

Red Kite (Jon Osborne)

I have become a recluse. There is no other way of describing it. I haven't even been birding since returning from Extremadura. The main reason is that despite finishing my book the most arduous part has just started. The tweaking. And boy, the tweaking is driving me mad.

This afternoon, I took a stroll around the block to clear the cobwebs. Within moments I noticed a group of around 12 Carrion Crows cawing and flying purposefully at rooftop level. At first I thought how unusual it was to have seen a group like that in my neighbourhood. Don't get me wrong, crows are a common sight in my area and there are several breeding pairs dotted around the immediate vicinity. But then it suddenly dawned on me that they were mobbing something. My excitement mounted as a Red Kite suddenly popped over the rooftop with over 20 crows in hot pursuit.

Red Kites are far more regular in London than ever before thanks to the expanding introduced population in Oxfordshire. Even so, it was great to see such an amazing bird of prey so close to my home.