Kite (birds)

Didn’t red kites use to live in London, scavenging on the filth left in the streets?

One year living in Nigeria we suddenly had an influx of black kites. We lived by a lagoon and these kites roosted on the nearby power lines & pylons. The lines were black with them each evening as dusk fell. We lived on the eighth floor so often had an eyeball-to-eyeball view of them when we were on the balcony. Ten days later, they disappeared as suddenly as they had arrived and I never saw another one.

Iam64,
We stopped feeding the birds, we were just providing a buffet for the sparrowhawks.

We live very near a nature reserve and get a fabulous display of kites every day. They come so low sometimes we get a really good view.

Red Kites, I believe were once quite rare and I heard in the south they were most likely to be seen around the Chiltern Hill, Bucks/Oxfordshire borders. Their numbers have grown, my friend who lives on the Surrey/Hants borders tells me they are now very prolific in her area.

Haven't seen any where I live but we do have the vividly green, squawky loud Parakeets, having escaped when they were filming "The African Queen" at a nearby film studio, or so one of the story goes. Well they must have come from somewhere because they aren't indigenous but have obviously adapted to our climate.

The kites in the skies over Delhi tend to be hanging over the Muslim, rather than Hindu areas. Our guides pointed out this was because Kites scavenge and the Hindu areas tend to be vegetarian the Muslims eat lamb. Fascinating country and wonderful birds to watch

Red kites are scavengers they don’t hunt to kill, they search verges for road kill mostly.

I don’t know if there’s some correlation between rabbits and buzzards. When there are lots of rabbits, there are lots of buzzards. Conversely, when rabbits are few, so are buzzards. We’re currently in a low-bunny period (although one has moved into my garden) and there aren’t many buzzards about, either.

We’re lucky to see red kites flying over here in Inverness quite often - always amazing to watch

Walking with DGS home from school one day some years ago, we were inspected closely by three red kites circling perhaps to see if DGS might have been a lamb...or some other tasty morsel.

They went away empty clawed.

I love to see both the red kites and the buzzards.

The buzzards first started appearing here (South Northamptonshire) about twenty years ago, and the kites maybe about eight to ten years ago.
Both are now well established, but I still stop what I'm doing to watch as they soar overhead. I never tire of seeing them.

We are in a very rural location. I don't know if it's coincidence or not, but as the number of birds has increased, the previously huge rabbit population has almost completely disappeared from the fields at the bottom of our garden!

They were reintroduced a few years ago in Stokenchurch and gradually spread out. It was interesting to watch as they widened their habitat. We now have them in South Hampshire and Wiltshire.

We don’t have kites this far down in Yorkshire, (although a good many buzzards and sparrowhawks locally) but they are usually visible along the A1 further north. DS sees them frequently up in the Vale of York. A couple of years ago we went to see them at a feeding station near Aberystwyth. It was a wonderful spectacle to see them coming in for the gather prior to feeding time. One minute there were two or three settling in the trees and then the air was black with them. No sooner was the copious amount of food gone than so were they! Being carrion feeders and scavengers, I think they do pretty well without all this largesse in the Spring and Summer, but apparently not in the depths of winter.

I saw green parakeets up here last year to my complete surprise - I thought they were only seen in the South. They are now pretty well established in at least one of our local parks. Not sure how I feel about these “incomers” competing for food with the natives, but they certainly make for an interesting spectacle!

A few months ago had a sparrowhawk catch a spotted woodpecker in the garden and sit down on the path to enjoy his lunch. Didn't stay long enough to get anymore than a fuzzy photo.

For the last two weeks we have had four green parakeets in the garden - I didn't know until then that they are very common around the south east. Now they fight with the woodpeckers for the peanut feeder.

There are red kites nearby too. I'm looking forward to seeing the young ones out for flight training with the adults - very entertaining sometimes watching them attempt to keep up.

Plenty where I live, they usually fly as a pair and they glide and swoop very low at times, a lovely sight.Their calls or cries remind me of lonely moors.If the sun is low you can see the red undersides very clearly.
They were introduced here about 20 years ago, and also wild boar.....although I have only seen small dead ones at the side of the roads.

We have them fly over our house regularly and some of our neighbours put foot out for them. They are a beautiful bird.

We had a sparrow hawk who would sit in the tree behind my garden. She'd wait, then swoop down and grab a ring neck dove or a large pigeon from my bird table. She'd then sit on the table, pluck and eat her snack. She was here for several months, then must have found a better all you can eat banquet.
I haven't seen Kites in our area. I loved them when we saw them during visits to India and hope some will establish themselves on our moorland.

We’ve always had buzzards here and now kites have moved in, too. They were introduced into an area about ten miles away and have gradually extended their range. Buzzards look rather galumphing against the graceful kite.

I did have a surreal experience when in my son’s garden in London. I looked up to see a kite swoop over quite low, swiftly followed by a bright green parakeet!

I remember seeing a sparrowhawk a few years ago circling over a tall pine tree in a garden near me. I was looking at it through the binoculars as I knew it had seen something. Next thing it swooped so quickly and got its meal for the day---a pigeon which had been on the tree minding its own business.

The tree also contained many nests of various birds and one which the squirrels enjoyed too then next thing woodcutters appeared and chopped it down because of its size. That was the end of the sparrowhawks in the area. I loved to see them though.

On a coach trip to Ronda in Spain, we were all privileged to see not one, but two golden eagles in flight over the mountain and the coach stopped for us to enjoy this rarity. We all took photographs, it was a superb sight.

They are beautiful birds, and during the very hot weather, we saw 15 birds soaring and swooping nearby.
But, did you see the TV report last week, where a toddler had had a snack, snatched from his hand, and he was left with a scratch mark?

They're common here now, but are still awesome enough for people to just stand and watch sometimes 4/5 of them giving an aerial display One has occasionally landed in my garden for a good beak around - the local cat scarpers pretty quick, it's one bird it won't try to tackle...

I live the London end of the M40/A40 and see them all the time nowadays they are very majestic. I read a report that are so numerous now out in Bucks they are becoming a nuisance snatching food out of people’s hands injuring them.

Yes, I love watching them. We live in North Hampshire and there are loads around here. Very distinctive call they have. Lovely seeing the young ones out with mum or dad learning the ropes. Never forget one day I was coming down from the loft and saw a red kite flying over the Velux window. Felt I could just reach out and touch it.
Apparently we get buzzards around here too. My hope is to see a buzzard in flight before too long.

Yes such lovely distinctive birds. We have one that circles over our cottage on occasion. Hopefully he will be allowed to do so for many moons yet.