Wow, I just had a large number of birds of prey very high in the sky above the fields behind us. I counted about 18-20 with 2 or 3 flying lower. Looked like buzzards, possibly kites, but not close enough to tell. Amazing sight though
Red kites are becoming very numerous in your part of the world. You don’t often see large numbers of buzzards together, so probably kites.
About 20 miles away they are nesting and we occasionally see them individually or in pairs over our house, but never en masse like that. I couldn’t quite see the tail to identify it as a red kite, but probably was.
Some misguided twit in the village where my daughter is living has started putting out meat for the kites and now there are literally hundreds of them. So, people are beginning to complain and I reckon it won’t be long until someone starts talking about shooting them as pests again Honestly - why can’t people just leave nature alone and let them find their own food?
2 dead and 15 hospitalised due to a “bad batch of substance” at Portsmouth’s Mutiny Festival. Absolutely tragic ....
I've got tears streaming down my face because I'm laughing so much! It's the Mum's reaction that got me, "What the **** was THAT???!!!"
There was a successful Red Kite reintroduction project in the Chilterns in the late 1980's and now the numbers are up to 1000 breeding pairs. It's quite likely what you saw were Kites. They have moved south (and elsewhere) from the Chilterns and it's common to see them along the A34 and M4. We see them now and again where I live near near Marwell Zoo. http://www.chilternsaonb.org/about-chilterns/red-kites.html They've been feeding Kites at Gigrin Farm in Wales for well over 25 years and I've seen "feeding stations" at other sites, some official and some not. http://www.gigrin.co.uk/about-gigrin-farm/ I'm not too sure how I feel about it but lean towards it being ok, afterall most of us put food out for garden birds to help them through the winter. The problem is that the birds become dependant on human intervention and their population is condensed into a relatively small area. You are right about people talking about controlling numbers of what were endangered birds as more than once I've heard people say there are too many buzzards nowadays. Country folk eh? Any thing that gets well established and they want to shoot it.
Yup, there's another here, in my county - http://www.redkiteswales.co.uk/ and I've seen quite a few down here in the south of the county and was dive-bombed by one once on the way into work!
I know my county quite well, seeing as I work in highways but I got terribly lost trying to find it, it's so far out in the sticks! Once we got there, hardly any red kites showed up as it was a horrid wet day (so unusual for Wales ) Went again the following year, lovely sunny day and seeing the kites so close was magical.
Cheers everyone.they are both doing well. Will have him in a saints kit before long. No more children as i am cream crackered
Feeding raptors should be of a limited nature as there should be a balance between hunter and prey. May be needed when semi-tame birds are introduced into the wild. Feeding small birds to help over winter isn't quite the same as that doesn't impinge on small mammal numbers.
So, Chilcs has changed the thread title without running it past me first. It’s ok. Not that important, not like that is my main job on here or anything. That’s fine, honestly.
Red Kites and Buzzards are primarily carrion eaters (but will take small rodents and birds occasionally) so in their case mammal numbers wouldn't be affected so much. Feeding them may be the difference between keeping numbers stable in an area rather than over populating but I agree there should be a balance in most cases. Once established it is not needed if the local area supports the numbers. Feeding small birds during the winter does stand up to comparison IMO because the population of both is not helped if the numbers overtake the food supply
