Looking for red kites in Plumpton

Yesterday I went to Plumpton on my own to look for red kites. Kaile has seen some there loads of times, so I was fairly confident.

The day was as beautiful and unblemished as you could ask for, weather-wise - the kind of day that would be wasted if it wasn't spent outside.

I bought a cake and an apple from the village shop and asked where the college was. I was told it was a long walk away but I didn’t mind and I wasn’t necessarily going there anyway, I was just curious.

As the walk took me across fields, I could hear lots of birds singing, including my first chaffinch of the spring and I managed to see one in a tree, as well as great tits and chiff-chaffs and greenfinches.

Then I saw what I thought were some red kites in the sky. They were high up, but they looked real big, with light markings on the underside of their wings. Unfortunately they were soon out of view.

I followed in their direction hoping to catch up with them. I think I imagined turning a corner into a forest clearing to see them a few feet away tearing apart some kind of corpse, snarling at me because they think I want some, but not flying away in fear.

I walked for a while. I got to the main road and kept going. I didn’t know where I was going. I hadn’t made exact plans. I hadn't asked Kaile where I should go to find the red kites, which I should have done. I just kept going up a steep hill, right up to the top, hot in my winter coat but I didn’t want to stop until I got to the top, and I knew that it would have to be pretty magnificent when I got there because I had been walking upwards for ages.

When I did reach the top, I realised I had reached the top of the South Downs and that I could see out across Sussex with Plumpton an unimportant cluster miles and miles in the distance.

I sat down and ate my cake. There was a yellow bird and I skipped away to chase it, leaving my belongings exposed and unattended in the grass. I thought about leaving all my possessions behind and becoming a nature man. There was plenty of room there for someone to live in some kind of hut or tent. I thought, what if I just stay out here for a few years? - finding out which flowers are edible, which branches construct the best huts, which leaves make the best hats, bathing in the rain, drying in the sun, rising when the sun she rises, riding a sheep to victory.

There were some walkers walking the South Downs Way and that kind of broke the illusion of wild isolation. I carried on walking. I went back down the hill and found the college but I couldn’t see any more red kites. There were lots of crows though and because the sun reflecting on their relatively broad wings made them look light-coloured, I kept thinking they might be red kites. Sometimes it’s hard to judge size from a distance. Then I thought maybe the ones I had seen earlier could have been crows as well. But I didn’t mind too much because the day wasn’t as focussed on the sighting of a particular species as other previous trips have been. At least I had heard all the spring birds singing and seen celandines and primroses and a six-petalled white flower and a four-petalled blue one and a big black mushroom, magnolia trees, the yellow bird, all kinds of generous green/brownery.

I thought about taking the bus back into Plumpton because my feet were very tired but I didn’t want to wait around for it and I’m glad I didn’t because on the walk back I saw two red kites high in the sky and I’m pretty sure they weren’t crows. I watched them for a while circling high above me in the late-afternoon sky:

[N.B. After examining the pictures/footage I took, I have concluded that they were actually buzzards and not red kites. Note the small, non-pointed tail.]