| Re: Red Kite chasing Kestrel
Hi,
I’m lucky enough to see kites most days and various birds are often mobbing them. Normally carrion crows but I also seen them being mobbed by many other birds including a kestrel once and sometimes even LBJs – David and Goliath style. Mostly they just fly off but occasionally they don’t turn the other cheek, or wing and have a go back at the bird that’s mobbing them. It’s not very scientific but from casual observation the kites can just get fed –up with being mobbed. Maybe the kestrel had been mobbing the kite for too long and the kite had just had enough and was giving the kestrel a bit of its own medicine. As you say the kites and buzzards seem to tolerate each other, maybe it’s because the buzzards normally soar at a higher altitude than the kites. It’s almost like air traffic control with the buzzards at least twice as high as the kites.
Hambleden is a good place to watch them as some of the valleys are quite quiet and the kites often roost in the trees on the valley side. I love watching the kites but last week I was between Stokenchurch (close to the original release site) and High Wycombe and saw about 40 – 50 kites circling very low over a garden close to the M40. Obviously someone has been feeding them regularly and although the sight was impressive and almost overwhelming as I went under them, it looked totally unnatural and wrong. It felt like having released the birds into the wild they were now being used. Seeing kites soaring over a patchwork of fields is a thing of beauty, but this gathering just looked awful to me. Also in the long term it doesn’t help spread the population’s natural range if too much food is left out for them.
Chris  |