You wish----No not New Hythe,Salisbury Plain,Wiltshire.Four of us,Bob Bland,Derrick Jackson,Simon Ginnaw and myself left Maidstone at 8.am for Enford on Salisbury Plain.After a stop for refreshments we arrived at about 10.15 for a two hour trip at 11.30 out to the Bustard release site on the Plain (organised by the Bustard Group).In all five Bustards were seen,one of the males,a three year old was seen displaying on occasions and all five were seen in flight.It was well worth the ten pound fee.We then cut across country to Watlington to see the Red Kites,a Harris Hawk was also seen over the village and in all about 50 Kites were seen along with at least 6 Buzzards and 1 Sparrowhawk, we arrived back in Maidstone at 5.30pm.
To see Great Bustards on Salisbury Plain was just great,I hope and prey the project is successful.


I saw my first ever Great Bustards during a bird watching holiday to Austria (lake Neusiedl) in April 1968 which ran from the 10th-22nd.On the 13th,we boarded a coach which drove us out to the Tadten Plain which runs right up to the Hungarian border.The Bustards,eight in total were first seen from the moving coach flying low across the plain.The coach stopped and we all piled out and watched as they crossed the track a few hundred metres ahead,if I close my eyes I can still see them now.Other notable birds seen that day were Imperial Eagle and a Greater Spotted,the last of which was seen soaring over the woods on the Hungarian side of the border.


The bird below is checking his flight and not about to land.