Let's go fly some (red) kites

I recently visited Gigrin farm in Wales to see the red kite feeding station. In my day to day life I see the occasional red kite, so to experience the mayhem of hundreds of kites was truly amazing. From a photography point of view it is actually better to wait a while, as there are just so many birds, that even if you focus one one bird you will most probably have half a dozen others in the background. The feeding was at 2pm, and I was still taking photos at 5pm, well after everyone else had left.

They also have visits from a couple of extremely rare white red kites. These are not albino but leucistic, due to the complete or partial absence of eumelanin and pheomelanin in one or more feathers, but not in the eyes, bill or feet. This results in white patches in all or part of the plumage. I was lucky enough to capture some images of one of these birds, there are believed to only be ten worldwide.

The rare leucistic kite