Every now and then, something catches your eye — a quick movement, and suddenly there’s a creature where you didn’t expect one at all. That’s what happened to me a few weeks ago as I sat by the river, watching the dipper. A large bird of prey flew overhead. Usually, it’s a common buzzard in this area. But the wing movement was different, it was clearly larger, and when I looked more closely, I recognized it as a red kite (Milvus milvus).
I had never seen one around here before. And for the past two or three weeks, there have been two of them in the sky. I catch glimpses of them now and then, often in the distance. These photos were taken a few days ago, when one of them suddenly appeared again, dropped down toward me from above, circled briefly, landed on a freshly ploughed field, and then disappeared back into the woods up the mountain.
The question is: have they never been here — or was my attention simply elsewhere?
Moments like these remind me how easy it is to overlook things, even when you spend a lot of time outside, paying close attention.
So much happens out of sight — not because it’s not there, but because we don’t expect it, or we’re distracted.
Sometimes, all it takes is one glance at the right moment, and an awareness open to the unexpected.
