I’ve seen Kestrels before, and what might have been a Sparrowhawk having a feast in our back garden. Yesterday we were on the M40 and I saw several birds of prey. There was one Kestrel but the rest were larger, higher and a completely different shape – with a V shaped tail like some whales. I thought surely they can only be Kites that must be how they got their name.
Then I looked in my bird book only to find that it (published in 1981) has them only in Wales – so a long way from the M40. But the picture was the only one that fitted! So google for “Birds of Prey sighted in Oxfordshire M40″ and lo and behold Red Kite on Wikipedia. They are frequently sighted over the M40 between Oxford and Wycombe – exactly where I saw them!
May 3, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Thanks Myrah. Saw 4 large birds of prey with white underwings and distictive flying style when travelling south on 1st May between junctions 5 and 6. Then saw a further five when travelling north two days later in same location. Looking it up they were scavengers in London until recently!
July 21, 2008 at 9:20 pm
i use the m40 on a regular basis the most kites ive counted is 23 all circaling the m40
August 15, 2008 at 12:57 pm
My family and I were travelling down the M49 from Warwick on Wednesday 13 August 2008 and we saw several Kites. We did not know what they were, but we knew they were birds of prey but they were too big for Kestrels. It was only by searching on the internet that we came to know they were Kites. They were beautiful.
August 15, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Apologies – my post should read M40 and not M49.
April 14, 2009 at 6:16 pm
In the pst couple of days have seen 8 kites on M40 south of Oxford.
April 15, 2009 at 12:39 pm
It’s such a reliable spot – I can’t remember when I didn’t see at least a couple on that stretch!
June 21, 2009 at 5:27 pm
While driving to Birmingham last week i noticed these birds of prey on the M40 near Oxford and thanks to this site i now know they are RedKites
July 26, 2009 at 3:44 pm
What an amazing view of the red kites above the m40
I could not believe how many there were !!
i did not know what they were and have googled birds on m40 to find out !!!
September 11, 2009 at 7:17 pm
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing as I drove to Oxford recently. I saw 10 huge Raptors that looked like Red Kites. After searching the WWW it seems that that’s what they were. Wonderful!!