Went up to Argaty, 15 Feb, 2009, not sure if there was any kind of guarantee of seeing red kites… I had only had one good view of a wild Scottish red kite before. Drove into the car park, and there were 2 or 3 kites circling in the background. So, seeing them not an issue! There is a visitor centre at the farm, and the viewing hide is about 400 m up a track behind the farm. The hide seats about 30, each with their own viewing port, and it was full to capacity on the day! The warden gives you the history of the project and tells you there are now about 50 birds in the area. The Argaty birds were originally brought in from Germany and Denmark, as at the time, the only remaining British birds were all descended from a single female in Wales! Now, they rear enough to export the surplus. On the day, we had about half of the locals in the sky over the hide – most I got in one frame was 10.
Also an incident over the Lake of Menteith (only had the standard lens with me – so a bit distant) when a kite strayed into osprey air space. The osprey tried to see it off, but the kite was vastly more manoeuvrable . However, it got the message and departed.
Last few were got when a kite appeared at our club loch in 2023. It flew right over our heads!