Red Kites

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.

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.

The user and all related content has been Deleted User

Oh dear, looks like someone lost their lunch David? But they are scavengers so true to form!

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😱

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. .  

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.

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.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/30-year-anniversary-of-landmark-release-of-red-kites-in-the-chiltern-hills#:~:text=In%20July%201990%20in%20the,of%20an%20ambitious%20reintroduction%20programme.

 

That was the Ospreys fate as well. The Loch Garten site was similarily protected to stop the egg thiefs. 

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.