Red Kites
Sat here on a CL in Buckinghamshire watching numerous Red Kites. Whilst most are wheeling around a few hundred feet up, there are a couple coursing backwards and forwards in front of the caravan at only about 30 pr 40 feet up and only about 50 feet from the caravan. They occasionally drop down onto the grass to catch a wayward earthworm. This has been going on for over half an hour.
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Had to answer your post John as you see my Avatar one of my favourite birds, have had a few flying around here and today a couple of Black Kites flying over but none landing on our field.
Have now got 2 male Nightingales calling either side of our house lovely to hear.
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I recall reading a bit about something like that Fish, when we were in Central Wales. Was it somewhere close to Strata Florida Abbey🤔? Beautiful place I do recall.
We have Red Kites in Yorkshire, mainly slightly North of us here in South Yorks, around Wetherby, Harrogate, but you do see the odd one or two floating around elsewhere. Lovely birds.
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We went to the feeding station at Rhayader last year . 15 minutes before feeding time there was about half a dozen kites there. 10 minutes before and there was possibly a hundred. By feeding time there was, apparently, over 300 birds. An incredible sight. During winter feeding it was said that there was regularly about 600 kites.
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We occasionally see the odd wanderer around us. I always fear though when they fly off in the direction of those areas managed for game shooting. Too many have been deliberately and illegally slaughtered despite the fact that these birds are essential carrion eaters and feast on the road kill which can be observed along our roads at an horrendous level at certain times of the year due to saturation of birds being released for the guns. Other raptors are targeted too!
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We dont do artificial things here but we have a healthy population. Just like we had Ospreys 15 years before the RSPB turned them into cash machines. You would be surprised what else we have but we dont advertise things. All best given a fighting chance by keeping control of vermin.
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Just looking in and I should have added to my previous post that I don't understand the feeding station either. I presume it helped originally to keep the numbers up?
There are good opportunities to see Red Kites at the CAMC site near Stamford.
We see the occasional Red Kite in our area on the Somerset/Dorset border.
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Reminds me of an unfortunate incident that happened to us one stay in Cornwall….
on a CL, we had just stepped outside to say hello to our chums who had just arrived, when we heard a thump on our caravan. When we looked, a passing buzzard was being mobbed by seagulls, and had just dropped its lunch, a very dead rabbit. Made a bit of a mess on the van, but at least it didn’t drop on any of the humans😱
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Let’s not forget that these Red Kite feeding stations have been set up by entrepreneurial farmers, land owners and locals in order to capitalise on their return.. The behaviour witnessed is natural as far as the birds are concerned. When these birds were very common across the whole of land such feeding frenzies were witnessed around rubbish tips were our towns and cities domestic rubbish was dumped. They are opportunistic scavengers after all and in no way anything like back to the numbers and locations once witnessed. .
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When we moved last year to our present house I continually paused in conversations to admire and view the red kites. Now I'm used to them so don't appear so rude when the mew 😀.
They fly so low over us it's lovely to see the detail under their wings without binoculars.
So far no nasty incidents 🤞.
Apparently there was a lady, who has passed away now, who feed them near the old A1 and there were lots of human visitors although I'd never seen it advertised so probably word of mouth. Numbers have now dropped off a bit since we arrived, but still plentiful.
I was delighted on one if my regular walks to see activity on a nest they used last year.
There's a CL very nearby which would give access to lovely bird watching including the red kite.
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This is from three years ago but it's interesting to read about egg collectors causing most of the Red Kite's demise, it's not always about shooting estates.
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No, it isn’t, brue but the abhorrent behaviour of the few involved with those estates have had a detrimental effect on the UK raptor population recovery and, unfortunately still do. In their eyes these birds are seen as vermin. Folk who use that term try to justify their actions and convince others that they are acting in the best interests of nature. This is very infrequently the case and where it happens the perpetrators and land owners employing them need far more severe sentencing. Their actions are illegal! Every month it seems we see evidence of such happening.
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Well, what a long and important life this bird achieved. One of the original reintroductions.
https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/23532569.oldest-red-kite-record-found-oxfordshire/
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Very sad news indeed. Earlier in May I was watching two of these wonderful birds in Fryup Dale whilst staying at The North Yorkshire Moors CaMC site. Who is doing this and why is this still happening! It’s terrible!
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I see on the local BBC South news last night that Red Kites are causing problems in parts of Oxfordshire and taking food out of people's hands and folk have been asked not to put food out for these birds as they are becoming used to folk being about.
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Very much a case like our coastal resorts with gulls. This is not the fault of the birds at all, just careless, thoughtless and selfish behaviours from humans who should know better. With the gulls, there are signs everywhere in the towns, even fines threatened but still folk throw them chips! Now the birds are pinching and bombing them to drop their fish suppers, when will people learn?
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Some certainly, fish but I suspect it would be a bit disingenuous and unhelpful to label them all thus. I reckon they walk amongst us no matter where they are from, like I’m sure the enlightened ones can be found living in both towns and rural settings . More a case of out of their backyards they don’t seem to care. Some will be day trippers maybe even locals.
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On the CL that I referred to in my OP we were requested by the owner NOT to feed the kites. This request went unheeded by another of the visitors who openly admitted that he knew he shouldn’t feed the kites but he did whenever he had his BBQ going, “the owner isn’t around so he won’t know”. Totally irresponsible in my eyes.
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