My week had started badly. Having filled my car with the wrong fuel on Monday morning, resulting in me spending most of the day sat in a garden centre car park in Welshpool, I needed to change plans for my week of work. It was a small and, at the time, very frustrating event, with big consequences.
Work commitments the following day were rearranged and resulted in me driving with my wife, Laura, through Powys at 10.25 am on Tuesday 18 April – a route I often take, but much later than normal as the job I now needed to complete required two people and we needed to drop our kids off at school first.
My usually solitary drive into Wales from my Shropshire home, with only a (usually NFL-related) podcast for company, this time involved discussions about kids, the terrible state of our lawn and plans for the weekend – until I glanced out of the car window near Glan-Mule.
A small and very pale raptor was foraging relatively low over a cereal field around 20 m from the road. Then it hovered, just as I had to look back at the road to ensure that I avoided the hedge. Panic. I stopped immediately. Fortunately, there was a pull-in adjacent to the bird and my brain was racing from male Hen Harrier (the most likely based on location, but not behaviour) to some sort of marsh tern. My binoculars were by my feet on the floor, which I quickly picked up, and which were instantly replaced by my jaw. Panic met infinity.
Martyn’s encounter with the Black-winged Kite was by complete chance, meaning that he had only his phone to hand to record a brief video of the raptor before it disappeared (Laura Owen).
I immediately called Richard Moores, my lifelong friend and birding companion – my first words were: "I've found a Black-winged Kite." His response was unrepeatable. He put the news out while I sent him a pin of the exact location and a quick video at about 10.30 am.
The priority was then to try and stay on the bird while obtaining photos. My SLR is often in my car, but not on that day, so Laura – a vision of calmness against my descent into total bewilderment – told me to watch the bird while she obtained the images. She is usually right.
I watched in disbelief through my 'scope and bins for three minutes while the bird hovered, glided and stooped majestically over the field and the nearby Afon Miwl. The kite watched me with that beautiful red eye. I, however, was mesmerised and struggling to function. It was occasionally joined by a Carrion Crow, which was clearly not happy with its presence.
At 10.35 am the bird drifted off west, following the course of the small stream and out of view. We followed in the car but to no avail. My workday, like my nerves, was again in tatters. We left the area after half an hour, returning later in the day to search but with no further luck.
The unsuspecting patch of Powys countryside where Martyn and Laura saw Britain's first Black-winged Kite (Martyn Owen).
Not three weeks earlier I was stood at Oued Massa, Morocco, watching a Black-winged Kite with Rich and now, here I was in a Mid Wales valley having just seen one in the UK. Madness. My emotions were a mess; I was shaking and felt overwhelmed. Usually, I would celebrate finding a good bird with high-fives and pints, this time it was a cuddle – it was wonderful to share such a defining moment with my wife.
I have always been a passionate, driven (obsessed!) and predominantly local birder. When taking stock a few years ago after a relatively fruitless trip to Shetland I had lost motivation. The mental difficulties associated with a hobby that, on the vast majority of occasions, left me frustrated and disappointed, had taken its toll. To have found the dream bird in such circumstances, at a time when my self-finding efforts had significantly reduced, definitely left me with some imposter-syndrome feelings and confusion. But the positivity and kindness of the birding community on social media and the messages from all the friends I have made through birding over the years has shown me the best side of the hobby again. Who knows, the fishing rods may now be left in the shed for a while.
