Storking...

Continuing the animal related theme ( I promise we'll get back to rc soaring some time soon ).... spotted over the North Downs today...

(world's worst photo of birds in flight)

I give you from left to right; 1 crow, 1 stork and 1 buzzard.

The stork is likely part of a reintroduction programme from sites in Sussex and the Cotswolds. FYI it was not carrying a young baby.

Once common in the UK, it's believed they were partially wiped out during the Civil War when they were seen to be representative of freedom! Since then, hunting and habitat loss has contributed to their terminal decline.

They are still common over in Germany, Portugal, Spain, Ukraine and Poland where they migrate to breed during the summer.

Prior to 2020 there were no records of nesting storks since 1416.

Approx 20 are sighted every year in the UK, and in 2020, a pair bred in the United Kingdom for the first time in over 600 years.

They are excellent thermal hunters, so if you see one.... stalk it!! (see what I did there?!)

dartmoor

Help out our fellow soarers who fly Dartmoor national park

Model gliding will be banned by next spring

https://www.dartmoor.gov.uk/.../DNPA-Comparison-of...

Fill this in:

https://www.dartmoor.gov.uk/.../who.../byelaws-consultation

making the most....

....of the last bits of lovely weather. A thermally afternoon on

Wednesday. More of the same tomorrow?

meanwhile on the hill.....

 

It's a sign

possibility of some 'left of field' soaring spots?

 

a touch of eggcitement

 

A little something to help combat that 'back to school' feeling....

exactly 1 year and 3 weeks ago....

....this happened!

Farthing Common is a capricious little slope; think Thurnham, but with even worse lift and far less of a landing area. However it does have its plus points.... I'll let you know once they come to mind!

But like most third rate hills, if you can get away in a thermal, you can make the most of the things.

the FPV racing quad boyos are ripping it up.... manic flips, screaming passes 3 ft off the deck,

and high speed impacts with any nearest tree!

we retreat back up the slope, hungry for every bit of launch altitude it can offer

active sky

the Alula really is a unique design, since its introduction approximately

15 years ago, it has changed the face of slope soaring.....

and here it is about to change the face of the cameraman!

it's on the lookout for its next victim!

the merry month of May

Approx 3 months ago, a covert evening sortie to check out a previously unsoared incline. No wind, but holy f##k the cowslips!!

off-piste

There are some hills that are utterly charming despite their diminutive stature, obligatory assent and compromised landing area. Today seemed like an ideal opportunity to have at it with one of them, and in the blustery pre-autumnal air a lovely bit of aviation was committed.

 

Edit-   Oh!.... and the Red Arrows did a flyover (too quick for the cameraman).

eagle eyes....

 

Real live eagle spotted over the Downs last Friday. Most likely part of the reintroduction programme on the Isle of Wight. Data tracker was just about visible on its back.... local avian population weren't too happy with their visitor though!