The Chilterns.

On Friday morning I headed south to the Chiltern hills.There were two reasons for this the first was that I was getting fed up at not been able to point the camera at any decent birds since the Napton Spotted Flycatchers and the Chilterns are the best place to see Red Kites one of my favourite birds.The second reason was I needed to go on a decent run in my new car to learn how to handle it.In order that I could get to see any rarities that might show much quicker I'd gone for a Porcshe Carrera S.

If you believe that you will believe anything.People who know me know that I wouldn't be able to drive one of those down the drive let alone on a road.No the BMW 3 series that I'd had for 8 years was replaced with an Audi A1 mainly for it's better fuel consumption.

I am hopeless from going from one car to another so I needed this trip to the Chilterns especially as the A1 has 6 gears (I struggle with 5),an on board computer to distract me,all the controls in different places and a Stop/Start fuction that I didn't understand.Another thing I discovered that everyone else seemed to know was that most new cars do not come with a spare wheel.

I headed to Watlington which I reckon is the best spot to get shots of the Kites.You don't need to leave the car park as the Kites zoom over all the time but needing to stretch my legs I walked round the village.I needed to get some Kite shots with them roosting and it wasn't long before I spotted some in the trees in people's back gardens.Wouldn't that be fantastic to look out into your back garden and see a couple of Red Kites in one of your trees.

Quite pleased with these shots as I had to take them at distance from the footpath along the road through gaps between the houses into their back gardens.

I ended up at the Carriers Arms a pub that is only 50m from the car park which has an excellent garden and has open countryside on two sides.I bet there are not many pubs in the country where you can drink all day,eat all day and have Red Kites zooming over your head calling out.Magic!!!!.

I didn't need any flight shots as I already got quite a few which was a good job because this time I messed up loads of shots that day most of them being very dark silhouettes.