Black- winged Kite at Braydon Marsh Hickling/ Horsey

On Thursday 20th July, I drove up really early to Horsey hoping to catch the BW Kite before work 5pm there was thick mist but it slowly started to clear and by 6pm I drew up into a crowded Horsey Mill car park paid the £4 parking fee and slowly made my way along the path by 6.30pm I met a birder who said the Kite was showing and still there!!! It was about 3/4 mile and I literally ran as fast as I could (I didn't take my big lens, so no pics) and met several other birders who confirmed it was still there at the time of leaving. I was advised to go to the second group for views but the first group, they confirmed the bird was till there and it was sitting on top a group of 3 bushes. The left hand one had the absolutely magnificent Black- winged Kite perched on the left hand site of the bush. It was no bigger than a Wood Pigeon being about Hobby- sized and slimmer than the Wood Pigeon perched beneath it, useful for comparison. A real stunner of a bird and it was giving good scope views being closer than I expected. It had a white head, face and breast/ underparts, the striking red eye, had a black- brow above it with pale grey upperparts with dark slate/grey/ black forewing and black wing-tips. It perced on a branch stem showings its bright yellow legs it was constantly looking about and one stage popped down to another stem where it flapped its wings showing the dark slate/grey black wedge on the primaries and secondaries. I looked at the bird for around 10 minutes then walked to the second group where I joined Rob h and could slightly clearer set up my scope and wathced it for a further 50 m inutes. I thought it would be distant but it was closer than expected although it would have only have been poor record shots if I had had my camera with me. This is the first bird of this specis seen since 1999 in China and I have also seen them in the Algarve in Portugal too, a real stunner of a bird! By 7.30pm I had to leave to get back to work.