Ravens and Red Kites...but there's a catch!

Last Saturday I was asked to go on a road trip to Wales, so although it wasn't a planned birding adventure for me, I took my camera anyway!! I've never been to Wales before, so I was looking forward to a change of scenery. We arrived 3 hours and some 200 miles later, but on the way there, we must have seen close to 10 separate Red Kite sightings! These Red Kites were all seen along the M4 above us as we were driving, approx. 25 to 50 miles West of Heathrow Airport. Unfortunately driving at 70 MPH meant no photos of the Red Kites. We also saw many many Buzzards too, and several Kestrels.
A picnic area was needed, so the driver decided to leave the main road(approx 10 miles outside of Merthyr Tydfil) and climb a narrow forestry road for several miles up what seemed like a small mountain! He had never driven along this narrow road, so it was all new to us! he was also determined to drive to the very top too! The sun was out, the sky was blue, but it was seriously cold in the wind up there, and Ive been cold a few times in my life, but that wind ripped right through me, and after taking some photos at the top of that hill, my hands had started to go past cold and numb, and felt like they were burning! Like a fool, I didn't have gloves with me either! The actual hill that we were on, overlooked 2 valley's, one being Bedlinog and the other Troedyrhiw.
I was busy trying to capture some shots of a pair of Kestrels, and then I saw a large black bird fly very close to one of the Kestrels, could it have been a Raven? Some time later, I was again trying to photograph Kestrels, when all of a sudden I heard that noise that only a Raven could make? I swung around and pointed my camera at the noise, then fired off a couple of long distance shots.

I normally have my 1.7X tele conversion Lens attached to my Panasonic FZ28 ten mega pixel camera(which already has an 18X optical zoom lens) but because I wasn't really here to take bird photos, I didn't have the lens attached, hence the Raven and Kestrel photos are not that clear, because they were a great distance away. Maybe next time I will set out to take a lot more bird pics?! but either way it was a good road trip, and the fact that we didn't really plan any of this, but still saw some great sights, was just a bonus.
I will take gloves next time though, and a scarf, and thermals!!! The outside car temp. read  -1degrees C. but add on that wind/chill factor that was ripping over the top of that hill, and the fact that I was shooting the pics on the shaded side of the hill, and you can just imagine how cold I was!!!

Some photos then. All the bird pics have been seriously cropped. Click on a photo to enlarge.

The large black bird(Raven?) flying very close to the hovering Kestrel.

Horses and Ponies.

Remains of an old farm/building in the distance(its almost in the centre of this photo!) photo shot without zoom.

Then I zoomed right in, and the reason I did this is because I could see a large black bird(through binoculars) to the left of the building, perched on the old wall/wood!

After I heard the strange Raven noise?! all I could get were these 2 long distance poor shots. Ive never heard or seen a Raven before, but I'm pretty sure thats what I spotted/photographed here?

Last photo is of my camera(with the Tele Conversion lens attached) I wish it was attached on the day though!