Driving down a fast stretch of road that cuts through open farm land, I managed to glimpse at the sky for a moment and noticed several large birds soaring high above.
At least two appeared to be red kites and the others buzzards, some swallows where also present.
It seemed unusual to me, does this seem normal to see different birds together like that ?
Red kites have been reintroduced around Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, where buzzards are also fairly common, so it probably wouldn't be particularly unusual to see both at the same time in that area but seeing them together elsewhere might be a very rare sight.
Doesn't seem unusual to me. Probably sharing a thermal. Also, by sticking together, all of them gain by having more pairs of eyes to look out for food opportunities.
All the same, as they compete for roughly the same niche, I expect buzzard numbers will decline a bit as the kites reestablish themselves.