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?

Also live near this area - where do you see them?

In the past, on motorways, you would only see a kestrel hovering above. I noticed on a recent journey there were a lot more bigger birds around.

When I was young in the 60s and 70s we hardly ever saw buzzards here in Cornwall, but they have been a daily occurrence now for at least the last 20 years.

i often see kestrels hovering over the road verges and also quite a few sparrowhawks and sometimes merlins which are lovely to see.

We had two cats which had been born in the wild on Bodmin Moor. When they were still very little we had let them out to explore the garden and they heard a buzzard cry. They came rushing back into the house very quickly indeed!

West Suffolk here, we regularly see buzzards, red kites (proper population explosion in the last 3 years) and kestrels. DH has seen a sparrowhawk in the garden in the last month.

Today I woke up to the sound of the cuckoo - couldn't spot it though. More usually it's owls keeping me awake. We live in a very wooded area, but open fields are very close by.

Yes you’ll see more because idiots keep feeding them, they do it round here, it’s like a scene out of a Hitchcock thriller, it’s not helpful for humans to feed them.

Red kites are commonplace where I live in St Albans. They also hover over the stretch of M25 I use to visit my mum in Surrey. Fabulous birds and wonderful to know they are thriving.

On the West Sussex coast today and have just seen a kestrel really close up.

I'm not far from you and I can watch kites and buzzards from my town-centre office window. It's a nice way to spend a tea break.

Isle of Wight here and am yet to see a White Tailed Eagle. They don't hang around! If you Google Roy Dennis Foundation, you can see where they are via their trackers.

But I agree, OP! Red Kites, Kestrels, Buzzards - so fabulous to see them. Also amazing seeing crows getting arsey with them!

Kites and buzzards are as common as muck here in north Herts! I can see double figures of buzzards in one go on the thermals over the fields, and kites every hour of the day. Lots of kestrels but far fewer sparrowhawks than ten years ago.

Wonderful to watch aren’t they, I see buzzards often.

Last year I saw a kestrel on a building site in Birmingham city centre!
I haven't heard a cuckoo since 2020, @DinosApple I used to sit in the garden listening to it during lockdown.

We live in a rural area although not a red kite reintroducing area and since lockdown I see them regularly. They are my absolute favourite birds of prey. I've also seen a buzzard circling which was exciting.

My mum lives near to one of the big reintroduction sites and I love watching them from her garden.

The hoverer is definitely a kestrel.

We can frequently see six or seven red kites at a time from the bedroom windows or garden. They have hugely increased over the past 15 years and are beautiful. We can hear Tawny owls calling in the evenings but don't see them.

I saw a kestrel on a walk yesterday, they are so lovely and the name windhover suits them perfectly.

There has been a huge increase in the numbers of birds of prey across the country. Unfortunately there will be a corresponding decrease in other wildlife such as smaller birds and rodents like dormice as these birds need something to eat. Although I do love watching the birds of prey, I can't help but notice the silence when the sparrowhawk cicles a tree looking for its lunch and I feel sad for the song-birds that are declining in numbers (although I appreciate this is not purely due to increased birds of prey).

The red kites were introduced as part of a planned campaign in cilterns, harewood, midlands and I am very proud to have been part if that

they land in our garden

Amazing isn't it! My mum is near Harewood, was once driving home and had to slam on the brakes as a huge one swooped down across my bonnet to grab some roadkill! Jumped out of my skin b it was so amazing to see it up close. Beautiful creatures.

I’m in Norfolk and see pairs of Buzzards and Kestrels every day. Even on my way into work (Norwich)

Saw a Red Kite today- they are becoming more common around these parts.

I was lucky enough to see a White tailed eagle (flying barn door!) a few years ago on North Norfolk coast. They may actually start a breeding programme here which is majorly exciting!

Also Peregrine Falcons nest in Norwich Cathedral every year.

Yes, I've seen more birds of prey than normal too. I work near Leeds (for the time being) and regularly see a buzzard over the playground. On the motorways and the bypass I often see kestrels and there are quite a few red kites over near where my mother-in-law lives. Several years ago we watched a sparrowhawk pounce on and eat a starling in our garden. The dc were amazed and still remember it!

That wouldn’t have been a kestrel, they won’t take something as big as a blackbird &i doubt they could catch another bird. That might have been a sparrow hawk, which is even more exciting!

I saw a lot of birds squawking at a low flying red kite the other day, prob protecting their young. I have rabbits so do worry about the amount of red kites.

North of England. Plenty of owls round here. Don't often see them but hear them at night

We are on the outskirts of Glasgow, don't think we have red kites this far north, or if we do, they're not a common sight.

We do have a lot of buzzards around which we see regularly, and in the last three months we've seen a peregrine falcon a couple of times which is amazing. And someone on the local FB group posted a picture of a sparrowhawk destroying a pigeon, which wasn't so nice.

Kestrels used to be commonplace but since the 1970s their numbers have been in decline, they are now on the amber list. My son and his colleagues recovered and raised a nest of kestrels a few years ago after the parents had been killed. When they released them one of the Jill's used to reappear every day and sit on the roof of the barn at feeding time, she would fly around then once feeding time was done she would disappear again until the next day.

You should have red kites in the area as Aberdeen, Dumfries and Galloway and central Scotland were release sites 15 to 20 years ago.

West Sussex and we see plenty of buzzards, red kites and kestrels.

We were lucky to see one of the IoW white tailed eagles on the South Downs last year - it was huge.

We also have peregrines nesting nearby (you always know when they’re around, so noisy) and a sparrow hawk regularly visits out garden.