Mewing

[poliphilo]

I walk under one of our tall trees and a bird of prey mews at me from the top branches, then, when I try to get a fix on it, takes off, drifts down the wind and goes to float over another section of the landscape.

It's a kite, isn't it, that makes that mewing sound?

There's a poem which likens the kite's call to bullets dropping out of the sky. Who wrote it? Was it Robert Graves? He, anyway, would have known what a falling bullet sounds like.

Comments

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

Buzzards and kestrels make a similar mewing sound. If it was round here, I would guess buzzard - lots of very noisy young buzzards around at the moment!

I love that sound-image, the kite's call likened to bullets dropping out of the sky.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Then it's probably a buzzard. I didn't get a good look at it.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I am not as expert in birds and their calls as puddleshark, but my guess would have been buzzard too. I think they're still much more common, though red kites are busy catching up. Check the shape of its tail if you see it again, you might have both birds in the area.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I didn't see it very well- just a moving shadow against the sky. I keep meaning to take my binoculars with me when I go strolling- and keep forgetting.