Little terns and Black Kite

 31st May

A duty day for little tern wardening and a pleasure to be there in the sunshine even though a fresh NE was keeping it cool. Terns were few and far but the best bird was a black kite? flying overhead heading for Oare Marshes. We, (MC) only saw it as it went passed so only had a back view which was not the best and photos were poor but good enough to show some relevant features. At no time did it look like a red kite, black kites also show similar features ie the pale patches on the top of shoulder especially with the sun shining, the bird had a brown tail without the 'v' notch in it, it did not fly like a red which usually yaw about side to side but dead straight, black wings and MC was seeing six primaries.. that was our call at the time.

                   Photo by S. Rogers, Cornwall ;   'Black and red kite together'    via Twitter

I just saw this on Twitter and posted here just to show a comparison, they both have white near the end of wing. 

Along the footpath a couple of wall browns made an appearance plus a green-veined white and  peacock butterflies. The site at Castle Coote is a couple of miles from the nearest road but proved a nice walk for at least c.75 people enjoying the Bank Holiday.

In the garden a hoverfly Merodon equestris (they don't have English names) was visiting the flowers allowing me some shots. THEY DON'T STING.