Watching the weather forecast all week and looking forward to some Red Kite photography on Saturday morning. The weather was predicted to be clear skies and warm from sunrise at around 5:55am :-)

Bait prepared, lenses cleaned, batteries charged, snack and a drink in the fridge.
Alarm goes off at 4:15am, up with a spring in my step and chasing through the morning routines...

Breakfast eaten, gear in the car and off. 40 minute drive to my favourite place for these local raptors. Arriving half an hour before sunrise, there was complete cloud cover with hardly any breeze. The Met Office got this part of the day wrong. Undeterred I set up my 500mm lens with a 1.4 Ext and my Canon 1D-X body, then put the bait in my usual place and sat down to wait...

And wait...

After 3 hours I had not taken a single Red Kite image. This is unheard of in this part of the world, usually there would have been 2 or 3 Kites circling the bait and spreading the word to their mates. NOTHING. The weather had improved and there were blue skies a gentle breeze and about 25oC.

7 hours and just a couple of long distance images taken. A complete waste of time.

I had my suspicions why the Kites were not feeding and on my journey home, I was proven right (for once). The farmers were very active in the fields today and the Red Kites were following the tractors around for their favourite food - worms ! One field (where I couldn't stop the car) I saw more than 6 or 7 Kites just above the Tractor. I hope to learn from the events of today, but I have a feeling this will not be the last time I head home disappointed and without any keepers. The image below is the best of a bad bunch :-(