The Friday Photo Challenge is organised by Postcard from Gibraltar, the theme she has given us for today is Hobby, I’ve decided to slightly retitle mine to…
More than a Hobby!
I’m thinking outside the box here so bear with me! A hobby is a type of bird of prey, it’s a small falcon, about the size of a kestrel. I think the nearest we have round here is the peregrine falcons up at Malham Cove.
What we do have round here are red kites, they are stunning birds with a wingspan of nearly 2m, reddish brown plummage and an unmistakeable forked tail. They are much more spectacular than a hobby in my opinion!
They have been saved from extinction here by one of the worlds longest running protection programmes. They have successfully been reintroduced into the wild and one of the nesting sites is at Harewood House, just down the road from us, so we regularly see them circling around on the thermals above our house or when we are out and about. I love seeing them around, it’s a bit like seeing a rainbow, how ever many you see you still smile and think ‘Oh look, a rainbow’. The kites have been at Harewood for nearly twenty years and there’s now nearly 300 in the surrounding area and further afield in Yorkshire but we still point them out and say ‘Ooh look, a red kite!’
Last time I visited Harewood they were circling fairly low so I managed to get a couple of good photos…
I couldn’t decide which was the best photo…
so here’s my three photos for the hobby challenge 🙂
Next Friday’s photo challenge is Green, so I think I feel a garden photo coming on!
thecraftycreek 
Amazing how different conditions can affect wild creatures. We have Black Kites, and they’re as common as sparrows – more, when you consider sparrows are introduced into Australia and the kites are native. They’re a very important part of our ecosystem, as they help to clean up roadkill, a much larger problem here than in the UK: think kangaroo vs rabbit!
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What fab photos, and i love your thinking in response to the prompt word. The bottom photo is definitely my favourite… I love how the light is on the kite. I agree with you about the excitement of seeing them, though i love in gloucester and they’ve not made it here. I’m always excited on a train to London that I’ll start spotting them just past Oxford. They are very impressive birds
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An original interpretation of the word – definitely thinking outside the box. We have a lot of birds of prey here in the French Pyrenees – you can see them perched on fences by the side of the roads, probably waiting for their dinner! My chickens know when they are circling overhead and hide – we once had one that landed in the chicken run and then had difficulty taking off again in the confined space.
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I love the second picture best, what a super interpretation of the topic.
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Those are wonderful! In the one, I thinks Mr. Kite is looking right at you! We sometimes see a bald eagle out by the lake in the park, but usually the only big birds (other than geese) are the buzzards 🙄, not nearly as cool as your kites.
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Beautiful photos and I love your interpretation, and have learnt something too! What beautiful birds, those wings. How wonderful that not only have they been saved, but they are so close to you!
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What wonderful photos!
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Wow, what a beautiful bird! Great photos!
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Those are such beautiful pictures!
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