Amazingly (after finding last weekend’s bird with LP on Beachy Head) I had a Black Kite! Fly west over Walthamstow Reservoirs on the morning of the 24th April. The ‘In Profile’ and active flight views of a Kite sp left a nagging feeling as to ID, and the shorter looking tail appeared to lack any Reddish tones. As the bird disappeared west, I was left concluding the ID from Photos, which showed; 6 long primaries (rather than 5 shown by Red Kite) the slight fork to the tail, the broad secondaries (longer than tail length and most obvious in third and fourth shots below), darker more diffuse primary window and mask can all just about be seen in this morning’s shots. I put the news out “Black Kite heading West…” this was followed by another 4 records of (surely the same) black Kite over a few sites in London.
Its the first record for the site and nicely won back after a bird I had over my old house in Hackney 2014 that went unrecorded due to lack of photos.
PERDIX BIRDER 