Birds of Prey - now see them daily.

[ColdApril]

I'm not imagining this, right?

I'm sure I'd never seen a wild bird of prey until I was in my 20s and used to visit my in laws who live in an area where Red Kites were reintroduced and it was always really novel the couple of days a year I was in their garden and could see and hear the kites.

But over the last year or so even where we live I now see birds of prey daily. Which definitely wasn't an occurrence before. I'm in west Kent.

Assuming it's something to be celebrated. I love seeing them.

Wondering if somehow the pandemic helped them out?

I’m in Suffolk and we’ve definitely got more common buzzards around these days. I’m always amazed at how high up they are yet you can hear them calling. I also saw a kite recently which I’ve never seen here before. We also get marsh harriers. There’s even been sightings of the white tailed eagles that got released in the Isle of Wight, they’ve been flying up to Norfolk and back. They’re massive!

We have loads of kites and buzzards over North Hampshire. I live in the town centre and can guarantee I'll see one over the garden or when I'm shopping every day.
One kite always perches on a tall lamp post next to the ring road. I think they take the roadkill.

adora I've not see the eagles yet. I live in hope one will come over us.

Red kites were reintroduced to England in the nineties and took hold really well - numbers increased by a thousand percent between 1995 and 2015. I think what you're seeing is just the effect of population growth which is still in the exponential stage. Over Oxfordshire and the north west corner of London they're absolutely ubiquitous.

I love to see them but may run out of sympathy if they start to compete with Marsh Harriers.

West Sussex and we see lots of red kites, some buzzards, sparrow hawks. It's great to see them though less so for their prey.

Thanks all. Glad it's not that I was somehow blind to their existence for years.

Hopefully their rise wont be at the detriment of other creatures.

There's one breed I see quite often who seem to stay in one place above a field, quite low and their bodies are almost upright and they're flapping frantically to hover before they swoop.

Haven't seen a kite do that at in laws so wondering what that is.

I think we also have buzzards here as see them circling very high, much higher than the in laws kites.

Think I need to do some bird research so I can tell DC what they all are. 😊

Have googled and the hoverers seem to be kestrels.

I'm in West Kent (near Maidstone) and I see buzzards and Red Kites circling too. This has been in recent years, so they must be breeding well here.

My husband saw a kestrel eating a blackbird in our garden yesterday. We're on the Kent coast.

Yes it's great just need the butterflies to get back to how I remember them as a child.

I see kestrels almost daily over the hedgerows/fields of Suffolk on the school run, and often see buzzards when out and about. Apparently a Harris Hawk got loose and settled into woods nearby and the owners are trying to tempt it back out - might go get an update and see if they've managed it yet.

There's talk of introducing Osprey around the county. I used to see them at Rutland Water when I lived up there and would love to see them around here.

I'm in the West Midlands, we see daily buzzards and often see sparrow hawks. There is the occasional red kite and there are peregrines nesting not too far away on a tall building. They are all wonderful, I love to see them.
Not quite the same but I also see herons every day and spot a kingfisher perhaps once or twice a year. We never saw any of these birds when I was a child. It's great their numbers are recovering.

I’m in south Manchester and I saw a sparrow hawk with a pigeon it’d caught in my garden not long ago - couldn’t believe it!!

I was annoyed with myself because I couldn’t quite figure out what was going on and went out & disturbed it, wish I’d just let it be.

We live in the south west and back onto woodland. There's a buzzard who is out above our house every single day, it's wonderful. They circle around so high up. Often gets attacked by crows too, presume they must be defending a nest to be so brave.

I don't remember seeing any birds of prey, apart from the odd kestrel, at all until about 9 years ago. Since then it's picked up considerably in my area (Bedfordshire). I can see red kites every time I look out of my window. They seem to circle over my estate constantly. It's lovely.

Wondering if somehow the pandemic helped them out?

On the contrary, the RSPB believe that (illegal) killing of raptors hugely increased during lockdown as the public were kept away from moorland areas, leaving the gamekeepers to do their thing in peace.

Yes, definitely more. I'm sitting in the garden. When I read your post on my phone I looked up. This was what I saw. And a kestrel just flew over too. I'm in the Chilterns.

Raptors all suffered badly from being shot but mainly from the effects of DDT in the 70s.

I remember my dad stopping to take a pic of a buzzard in the 80s in Devon as there were so few of them. Now there's loads and I have 2 or 3 wheeling over the house most days. Kestrels and sparrowhawk are common too. We've just got red kites regularly too ( south Warwickshire) and it still give me a bit of a thrill to see them when they were so rare!

... red kite populations are obviously thriving. There have also been conservation moves with other species too, to bolster UK populations.

There's also a theory that the time we spent at home made us more in tune with our surroundings so we're noticing and appreciating what was always there.

I love kestrels - their other name is Windhovers which is beautiful. I'm lucky enough to live in an area full of red kits but still love seeing them every day. Recently I've seen more buzzards though and more kestrels too.

Windhover IS a beautiful name!

Kestrels were also known, less poetically, as 'windfuckers'. Regularly see common buzzards and sparrowhawks from my window (coastal SE Kent) - don't have to go very far to be pretty sure of seeing marsh harriers, peregrines, hobbies (in summer) and kestrels either.

We have peregrines nest in a church steeple across the river from our house. They have a vidoecam and I am always chuffed to see them lay eggs and have them hatch. Then I mutter about the racket!

Buzzards often come into town in the summer and have a bit of a fight with the crows.

That said, I don't see many ducklings (and there used to be loads 15 years ago).

I can't do a link atm but google The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins, an amazing poem about kestrels.

Red kites are the birds I see the most where I am (Chilterns) the re-introduction has obviously been a great success - but I do wonder what birds they have replaced.

I live on the edge of a grouse moor. We occasionally see buzzards and kites but they never hang around for long. We should also be crawling with short-eared owls given the environment, and should be able to see hen harriers fairly often. We don't. Take from that what you will...