One late afternoon last December, when we were out looking for nacreous clouds, we came across a red kite roost.

These roosts are where red kites gather to rest for the night. They are quite social birds, especially outside of the breeding season. As evening approaches, they come together in groups, often returning to the same roosting spots year after year.

This communal roosting is pretty unique among raptors. They start forming these roosts in early autumn, and as winter sets in, more kites join the group. They might do this to find mates, follow others to food sources, or just enjoy the company of fellow kites.

We were fortunate to stumble across this roost by chance last year and retuned a few times to see the birds come in as the light faded on winter evenings.

Today, was the first time we have been to look this winter and we weren’t disappointed. The sunset was rather lovely and we counted at least 38 kites come into two separate small copses a few hundred metres apart. This was the highest number we have so far counted, so I’m keen to pop back a few times to see if numbers increase further this winter.