Finally I have seen a red kite in Essex. Well I am about 90% sure that it was a kite. I was driving on the M25 yesterday between Bell Common Tunnel and Waltham Abbey when a large bird of prey glided across my vision. There was no way that I could take my eyes off the traffic to get a better look but the whole "feel" of the sighting was of a kite rather than a buzzard and I think that I have seen enough of both in the past few years to trust my judgement on that.
The garden has seemed very quiet with hardly any birds seen but I hadn't been explicitly looking. I have just started putting a little food out in the front and in 24 hours have seen Robin, Great and Blue Tits and Magpies landing in my tiny front garden. Yesterday I heard a song that was unusual to me which the Merlin app identified as a Blackcap. Unfortunately for me the bird was ensconsed in the middle of my Forsythia which is still in full leaf and I couldn't get a sighting. This afternoon I saw Robins in the garden and corvids overhead. I set Merlin running while I swept fallen leaves from the front path. The app identified Robin, Rook, Wren, Jackdaw, Greenfinch and Blackbird. I also heard Parakeets but not while the app was running.
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