In the previous Blog Post, I detailed the circumstances around finding my first Dorset Black Kite. Two days later, Nick Hopper rang me whilst doing a Raptor survey from a viewpoint near the Soldiers Road Stud Farm to say, he had relocated my Black Kite and drifting West over the Corfe Ridge to the North West of Corfe Castle. I rang the news around the local Birders, grabbed the camera & headed there. Within a few minutes, I had overshot to a good vantage point at Stonehill Down, expecting it to have carried on drifting West. Nick rang again to say he was in a pull in about a half mile along the Church Knowle road & it was over the ridge above him. It had clearly turned around. I picked it up from Stonehill Down, but it was about 1.5 miles as the Black Kite flies. I quickly returned to join Nick on the Church Knowle road. It was still flying over the ridge.
Over the next forty-five minutes, we were joined by another six locals: Pete Moore, Jol Mitchell, James Leaver, Rob Johnson, Phil Saunders & Durwyn Lilley. We were the only locals to see it, before it circled off high & drifted off towards Hartland Heath: never to be seen again.
The amazing thing was when we checked the photos against the photo that Rob Johnson took of my Black Kite from two days earlier, it was confirmed to be a different individual. Just like the proverbial London Buses of my school days, that take forever to come & then arrive together. I've attached a copy of Rob Johnson's photo of my Black Kite, which had a broken primary shaft in the left wing. This highlights the advantage & importance of people carrying decent cameras these days.
