My Diary
A trip to Mid Wales. (day 1)
15/05/10
A very pale, (leucistic ?) Red Kite at Gigrin.
It was time for our annual jolly, being pushed forward a few weeks due to my impending hospitalization, a hernia op this week, (some would say obtained through carrying too big a lens around) and holiday commitments from the rest of the crew, so at 06.00 hours on Saturday morning, I picked up Allan Ashdown and Steve Ray, whom met at Mike Gould’s house. We left for Rhayader, in Powy’s Mid Wales, making good time before a minor brake down in Abergavenny. We were in luck, as the brake down happened outside a Landrover service centre, and being as we were travelling in a Landrover, Bingo. A small detour to another service centre just 9 miles back along the road we had just travelled up, organised by the Landrover staff on our behalf, and only an hour in time wasted, we had a small repair carried out, and carried on into Mid Wales just £20 lighter, which was really a result. We arrived at Gigrin farm, the Kite feeding station, just after 1.00 pm, and in plenty of time for the start of the feed at 3.00 pm. Having booked a photographic hide we waited, chatting to a few other visitors, and then the Kites appeared from all directions, taking advantage of the prime Beef thrown out to them from the proprietors of the feeding station. There were about 200 Red Kites in all, with Raven and Common Buzzard being photographed as well. This is a must for Bird photographers, and I can recommend it to any one travelling to this part of the world. It is something just to watch these birds coming in for meat, but if you are a bird photographer, a place in the photographers hide is a must, with just a small charge for the privilege. We left the farm at 6, making our way to the Elan Valley hotel, a great place to stay, situated in the Elan Valley, alongside the river Elan. We had a few target birds that we wanted to photograph, with Red Kite, Common Buzzard and Raven being done at Gigrin, and also on the list was Dipper, Common Redstart, Pied Fly-catcher and Wood Warbler. Half a mile from the hotel, we stopped at a bridge on the river Elan, as we had seen Dippers here last year, but worryingly there was no sign of any, so we carried on, checked in to the hotel, had an evening meal and a few pints before calling it a day and retiring to our rooms to check on what we had photographed earlier at the Gigrin farm Kite feeding station.