The walk back down was, of course, less strenuous, but no less enjoyable, with buzzards soaring above and the farm's sheep keeping a wary watch on me. The route passes through wooded and wetland areas which are part of the wider conservation that exists at Gigrin Farm although it is also still a working farm. I didn't have time to visit the neighbouring RSPB reserve - on my next visit I will make the time.

The trail returns via the hides at one edge of the red kite feeding station. There are several large hides, all of which will give you an excellent view of the kites at feeding time, which is 2pm in the winter months and 3pm when the clocks go forward in spring. As Chris points out, the kites don't know that the clocks have changed!

Two or three hours before feeding time, the kites started appearing. First one or two, then a few more, sometimes circling and drifting off, but never far away. As feeding time loomed, the sky began to fill with little black dots which quickly became larger, kite-shaped black dots. This really is quite spectacular, especially if you've never seen red kites before.