Red Kite

[biggs682]

had a nice site this morning of a Red kite devouring his breakfast of road kill , whilst i sat in the car at a max of 10ft away , what a gloriuos sight

 

[srw]

Here in the Chilterns, we rarely see any garden birds, did the one hour garden bird watch for RSPB in January and counted zero, but there's always a Red Kite or two or three circling above the garden.

Meanwhile, at the top of the hill at the bottom of which CharlieB sits we regularly get loads of garden birds - mixed flocks of tits (blue, great, long-tailed) are common, there are always blackbirds, starlings are fairly common, wrens and dunnocks drop in fairly regularly. We get dozens of magpies and the occasional jay. We even heard a pair of tawny owls one night. Kites are relatively rare.

I'm sure I remember reading that red kites used to be very common scavengers in city centres, but because people thought they killed they were mercilessly persecuted.

 

[zacklaws]

As a rule I always see at one when I go out into the Yorkshire Wolds, usually just to the East of Nunburnholme hill, soaring over the valleys.