Close call

Had a very close call this morning came out of nowhere and then battery started beeping crapped myself when I see him. Top right

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It looks a fair wingspan on it!

Omg it’s a arse quenching moment :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Not a birder but colour-wise is it a Buzzard?

Yes was fair size

Looks like a Red Kite. They’re like pigeons round here, you can barely move for them. Stay away from their nesting sites and you’ll be OK. It’s courting season for them right now, they’ll get worse by April when they have young.

Yep got me heart pounding a bit

They tend not to attack but to try and scare the “threat” away. I’ve seen much smaller birds chase them off. Sport mode is your friend. Up and then away. They can’t climb as fast as you.

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Which shows exactly how much I know!

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Yes red kite there’s a fair few round here but not really bothered me till today

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:joy::joy:

I’m no twitcher, I just suddenly became aware how many of them there were once we shared the airspace :grin: They can get massive though. There are certain clumps of trees I no longer bother flying anywhere near and if I’m filming/photographing locally for an organisation I make sure I’m pretty quick about it and have someone looking out for them. Normally you hear them first though.

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Have you got the live stream near mis

i do yes just him appearing in the top right and me trying to land you don’t really see him much I’ll do a quick edit later and post on here.

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Before the World came to a standstill I used to regularly fly with Red Kites. We used to share thermals (not the Damart kind). As long as you don’t make any threatening moves they’ll quite happily play wingman to my thermal gliders.

Fine for a single, or a few, birds. A flock of way over 100 swallows that totally surrounded my drone, didn’t provide that option.
Sloooooowly flew the drone, and all the swallows, the 100m back to above my location, and then slowly down.
Swallows don’t land on the ground so they had to give up.

If only they’d appeared whilst I was still recording it would have been an incredible video … but I was watching to spot exactly where in Alberorbello (Puglia, Italy) it fell into in the hopes of retrieving in one piece for use during the remaining 2 months in Italy.

I’ve had seagulls swarm around sufficiently that I’d never try a rapid ascent, too.

It’s more likely to be a Red Kite, looks a bit bigger than a Buzzard. What area are you

definitely a red kite there’s loads about took off from my garden a lot and never bothered with it before just panicked as i took eyes off phone for a split second to then to see him starring at me was a shock and was on 19% battery lucky wasn’t that high up and was just above garden.

you tube link

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That’s a bit worrying lol.